Treating depression with hypnotherapy: a systematic review of randomized controlled trials

INTRODUCTION: Two meta-analyses on the efficacy of hypnosis or hypnotherapy for the treatment of depressive symptoms found moderate effect sizes. However, in most of the primary studies included in these meta-analyses, an established diagnosis of depression was not a mandatory inclusion criterion. To be relevant for treatment guidelines, the current systematic review focused on randomized controlled trials (RCTs) evaluating hypnotherapy in the treatment of patients with a diagnosis of depression.EVIDENCE ACQUISITION: The literature search was conducted within PubMed, PsycINFO, ClinicalTrials.gov, and Central. Only RCTs that were published in a peer-reviewed journal and had investigated samples with a diagnosis of depression were included. Methodological quality of the RCTs was evaluated with the Cochrane tool for risk-of-biasEVIDENCE SYNTHESIS: Out of the four included trials with altogether favorable results for hypnotherapy, only one RCT was assessed as having a low risk of bias. In this RCT, hypnotherapy was non-inferior to cognitive behavioral therapy in the treatment of a mild to moderate depressive episode.CONCLUSIONS: Taken together, there is some methodologically sound evidence for the efficacy of hypnotherapy in the treatment of depressive disorders, corroborating the positive results found with less methodologically strict trials. Conducting well-designed RCTs and manualizing treatment is feasible in that field. Further RCTs are needed to enable the decision whether hypnotherapy should be recommended in treatment guidelines.(Cite this article as: Fuhr K, Hagl M, Drujan M, Batra A. Treating depression with hypnotherapy: a systematic review of randomized controlled trials. Minerva Psychiatry 2022;63:197-207. DOI: 10.23736/S2724-6612.22.02303-X)