A study has disclosed that hypnosis can be an effectual means of handling pain in women suffering from breast cancer.

Lisa D. Butler, associate professor in UB's School of Social Work, a faculty member in the Buffalo Center for Social Research and first author of the study, said that the randomized test evaluated pain and suffering, pain regularity and amount of constant pain amongst 124 women suffering from metastatic breast cancer.

To find answer, scientists traced pain levels at four-month intervals for a period of twelve months.

Study particpants, who were assigned to the treatment group, had group psychotherapy, in addition to instruction and practice in hypnosis in order to control their pain symptoms.

They reported considerably less increase in the pain intensity and suffering in due course, as against a control group, who did not receive the group psychotherapy intervention.

But, those making use of hypnosis reported no major reduction in the occurrence or constancy of pain occurrences.

According to Butler, "The results of this study suggest that the experience of pain and suffering for patients with metastatic breast cancer can be successfully reduced with an intervention that includes hypnosis in a group therapy setting."

"These results augment the growing literature supporting the use of hypnosis as an adjunctive treatment for medical patients experiencing pain."

The results of the study were released in 2009 in an issue of the American Psychological Association journal Health Psychology. (With Input from Agencies)