Abstract
Objective:
This pilot study related hypnotizability to changes in HIV immune blood markers after two psychological interventions.
Design:
The mean of two blood assays prior to intervention was compared to the results of the blood assay after the intervention.
Intervention:
A course of four weekly 2โhour training sessions coupled with daily selfโhypnosis practice was given to 13 participants with diagnosed HIV and for a further participants a similar course was given in a Japanese healing method called Johrei (a total of 22 participants). All were naรฏve to antiโretroviral medication.
Main outcome measures:
CD4+ T cell counts, viral load of the HIV virus in blood.
Results:
When highly hypnotizable subjects were compared to those of lower hypnotizability in a repeated measures analysis, their CD4+ tโlymphocyte counts were significantly higher (p = 0.007). This was achieved by the highly hynotizable subjects nonโsignificantly raising their CD4+ counts while the CD4+ counts of the less hynotizable subjects declined significantly (mean change = โ79.4 p = 0.006). The differences in CD4+ T cell % of lymphocytes and the viral loads did not differ
Conclusions:
This pilot study indicates that hypnotizability may predict immunological response to psychological interventions in HIV. Copyright ยฉ 2004 British Society of Experimental and Clinical Hypnosis