Research Database

“What treatment, by whom, is most effective for this individual with that specific problem, under which set of circumstances?”
– Gordon Paul (1967, author's italics)

Empirically-Supported Treatments
Hypnosis & Psychotherapy

The Empirically Validated Therapies list was published by the American Psychological Association, Division 12, The Society of Clinical Psychology. The objective was to identify and promote psychological treatments that had evidence showing they were effective (i.e. were "empirically validated").

The concept of evidence-based medicine rests on the premise that the quality of patient care is enhanced when practitioners use treatments with empirical support (Sackett, Richardson, Rosenberg, & Haynes, 2000). In an effort to identify and promote empirically supported psychological treatments, Division 12 of the American Psychological Association (APA) first established a Task Force to examine this issue in 1993. The aim was to define empirically supported psychological procedures, along with examples of interventions that met those criteria... This Task Force, headed by Dianne Chambless, conducted a survey of doctoral and internship training programs in clinical psychology, focused on training and supervision in empirically supported treatments (ESTs).
– Empirically Supported Treatments: 10 years on, Woody, Weisz, McLean

The table of empirically-supported treatments below is based upon the ‘Update on Empirically Validated Therapies, II’ published by the Chambless task force (The Clinical Psychologist, June 4, 1997.) The main treatments supported in these areas are also broadly cognitive or behavioural in orientation. Interventions have been grouped under different headings, and hypnotherapy interventions which more recent studies have explicitly proposed to meet the Chambless et al. criteria have been included.

If you want to train to be a hypnotherapist with an evidence-based approach you can find hypnotherapy training courses here.

Key to Levels of Empirical Support
1 = Well-established	2 = Probably Efficacious	? = Subsequently Proposed

Pain Management
Level	Treatment	Condition	Research
2	Multi-component cognitive-behaviour therapy	Pain of sickle cell disease	Gil et al. (1996)
1	Multi-component CBT	Pain associated with rheumatic disease	Keefe et al. (1990a,b) Parker et al. (1988)
2	Thermal biofeedback & autogenic relaxation training	Migraine	Blanchard et al. (1978) Sargent et al. (1986)
1	Behaviour therapy	Headache	Blanchard et al. (1980) Holroyd & Penzien (1990)
2	CBT & physical therapy	Chronic pain	Nicholas et al. (1991)
2	EMG biofeedback	Chronic pain	Flor & Birbaumer (1993) Newton-John et al. (1995)
2	Multi-component operant-behavioural therapy	Chronic pain	Turner & Clancy (1988) Turner et al. (1990)
2	CBT	Chronic low back pain	Turner & Clancy (1988)
2 ?	Hypnosis	Acute pain during surgery	Lang et al. (2000)
1 ?	Hypnosis	Acute Pain	Montgomery et al. (2000)
1 ?	Hypnosis	Headaches & migraine	Hammond (2007)

Depression
Level	Treatment	Condition	Research
2	Brief dynamic therapy	Depression	Gallagher-Thompson & Steffen (1994)
2	Cognitive therapy	Depression in geriatric patients	Scogin & McElreath (1994)
2	Reminiscence therapy	Depression in geriatric patients	Arean et al. (1993) Scogin & McElreath (1994)
2	Self-control therapy	Depression	Fuchs & Rehm (1977) Rehm et al. (1979)
2	Social problem-solving therapy	Depression	Nezu (1986) Nezu & Perri (1989)
1	Behaviour therapy	Depression	Jacobson et al. (1996) McLean & Hakstian (1979)
1	Cognitive therapy	Depression	Dobson (1989)
1	Interpersonal therapy	Depression	DiMascio et al. (1979) Elkin et al. (1989)
2 ?	Cognitive hypnotherapy	Depression	Alladin et al. (2007)

Anxiety & Stress
Level	Treatment	Condition	Research
1	Exposure therapy	Agoraphobia	Trull et al. (1988)
2	Exposure & couples communication training	Agoraphobia	Arnow et al. (1985)
2	Applied relaxation	Panic disorder	Öst (1988)
1	CBT	Panic disorder with and without agoraphobia	Barlow et al. (1989) Clark et al. (1994)
1	Stress Inoculation Training	Coping with stressors	Saunders et al. (1996)
1	CBT	Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD)	Butler et al. (1991) Borkovec et al. (1987)
2	Applied relaxation	Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD)	Barlow et al., 1992 Borkovec & Costello, 1993
1	Exposure & response prevention	Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)	van Balkom et al. (1994)
2	CBT	Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)	van Oppen et al. (1995)
2	Relapse prevention program	Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)	Hiss et al. (1994)
2	Exposure therapy	Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)	Foa et al. (1991) Keane et al. (1989)
2	Stress Inoculation Training	Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)	Foa et al. (1991)
2	EMDR	Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in Civilians	Rothbaum (in press) Wilson et al. (1995)
2	Systematic desensitization	Social anxiety	Paul & Shannon (1966)
2	Systematic desensitization	Social anxiety (public speaking)	Paul (1967) Woy & Efran (1972)
2	CBT	Social phobia	Heimberg et al. (1990) Feske & Chambless (1995)
2	Exposure therapy	Social phobia	Feske & Chambless (1995)
1	Exposure & guided mastery	Specific phobia	Bandura et al. (1969) Öst et al. (1991)
2	Systematic desensitization	Specific phobia (animals)	Kirsch et al. (1983) Öst (1978)

Eating Disorders
Level	Treatment	Condition	Research
2	Hypnosis & CBT	Obesity	Bolocofsky et al. (1985)
2	Behaviour therapy	Childhood obesity	Epstein et al. (1994) Wheeler & Hess (1976)
2	Interpersonal therapy	Bulimia	Fairburn et al. (1993)
1	CBT	Bulimia	Agras et al. (1989) Thackwray et al. (1993)
2	Interpersonal therapy	Binge-eating disorder	Wilfley et al. (1993)
2	CBT	Binge eating disorder	Telch et al. (1990) Wilfley et al. (1993)

Psychosomatic Disorders
Level	Treatment	Condition	Research
2	Multi-component cognitive therapy	Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)	Lynch & Zamble (1989) Payne & Blanchard (1995)
2 ?	Hypnosis	Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)	Palson et al. (2002)
1 ?	Hypnosis	Asthma (managing related anxiety emotional states)	Brown, D. (2007)

Habit Disorders
Level	Treatment	Condition	Research
2	Habit Reversal Therapy	Thumb-sucking and nail-biting.	Azrin et al. (1980b) Azrin et al. (1980c)
2	Scheduled, reduced smoking & multi-component behaviour therapy	Smoking cessation	Cinciripini et al. (1994) Cinciripini et al. (1995)
1	Multi-component CBT & relapse prevention	Smoking cessation	Hill et al. (1993) Stevens & Hollis (1989)

Note: We have omitted the ESTs for “problems of childhood”, “marital discord”, “sexual dysfunction”, and “chemical abuse” (excluding smoking), which did not relate to common applications of individual hypno-psychotherapy in clinical practice or research.

References for Proposed Studies
Alladin, A., Sabatini, L., Amundson, J.K. (2007). ‘Cognitive Hypnotherapy for Depression’, IJCEH, 55: 147-166.
Brown, D. (2007). Evidence-Based Hypnotherapy for Asthma: A Critical Review. IJCEH, 55: 220-249.
Hammond, Corydon D.             (2007). Review of the Efficacy of Clinical Hypnosis with Headaches and Migraines. IJCEH, 55: 207-219.
Lang, E.V., Benotsch, E.G., Fick, L.J., Lutgendorf, S., Berbaum, M.L., Berbaum, K.S.            (2000). Adjunctive non-pharmacological analgesia for invasive medical procedures: a randomised trial. Lancet, 355: 1486-1490.
Montgomery, G.H., Du Hamel, K.D., & Redd, W.H.   (2000). A meta-analysis of hypnotically induced analgesia: how effective is hypnosis? IJCEH, 48: 136-151.
Palsson, O.S., Turner, M.J., Johnson, D.A., Burnett, C.K. & Whitehead, W.E.          (2002). Hypnosis treatment for severe irritable bowel syndrome. Digestive Diseases & Sciences,
47: 2605-2614.

Research Database

Empirically-Supported Treatments Hypnosis & Psychotherapy

Empirically-Supported Treatments
Hypnosis & Psychotherapy