Hypnotherapy in Patients With Chest Pain & Unobstructed Coronaries

Summary

This study will investigate whether clinical hypnotherapy can effectively treat chest pain symptoms, improve emotional wellbeing and quality of life in postmenopausal women with chest pain and coronary arteries without any narrowings. The diagnosis of chest pain with 'normal' coronary arteries is found in 25% of patients undergoing investigation of chest pain using coronary angiography (when dye is injected into the coronary arteries whilst xray pictures are taken), and the majority of these patients are postmenopausal women. Often there is no obvious physical cause. Despite symptoms being treated using conventional drugs, and life expectancy is not affected, many patients continue to suffer from debilitating chest pain symptoms, frequently resulting in visits to hospital, increased psychological illness and poor quality of life. The investigators are interested in finding ways of improving not only chest pain symptoms but also psychological wellbeing and quality of life in these patients. Previous studies of ours have found improvement in these patients after taking part in a support group, and using a relaxation technique called Autogenic training. Recently the investigators conducted a pilot study which showed a favourable effect of hypnotherapy on physical ability, well-being and quality of life. The investigators would now like to extend this study, performing a larger randomised, controlled trial. The investigators hypothesise that hypnotherapy will beneficially affect symptoms and quality of life in patients with cardiac Syndrome X.

Conditions

• Chest Pain
• Unobstructed Coronary Arteries

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Hypnotherapy

Ten pain control hypnotherapy session will run for 50-60 minutes each. In the first session a thorough history will be taken of the patient's chest pain history together with both the sensory and affective components of their pain. If there is time, relaxation technique and self-hypnosis will be taught at this visit. In subsequent sessions, various techniques, including techniques that focus on direct suggestions and imagery work, will be applied and taught to the patient. The pain control techniques are all analgesic in nature - focusing on the reduction, but not the total removal of the pain. A small amount of pain is left behind to serve as a reminder that either something is wrong or that the patient needs to take it easy.

BEHAVIORAL

Supportive therapy

Subjects in the Supportive therapy group will attend the Royal Brompton Hospital weekly for 10 weeks to meet with person of equal status to the hypnotherapist (e.g. a research assistant, not a medical practitioner) trained to provide counseling and support. Visits will last 50-60 min.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Imperial College London

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Peter Collins, MD, FRCP · Imperial College London, and Royal Brompton & Harefield NHS Foundation Trust

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2012-02-01

Primary Completion

2012-03-02

Completion

2012-03-02

Countries

• United Kingdom

Study Locations