The effectiveness of hypnotherapy with physiotherapy: Pain intensity, functional disability, and psychological distress among patients with non-specific low back pain

BACKGROUND: It has been demonstrated in previous investigations that non-specific low back pain is caused by multiple factors. Evidently, integrative therapies should be used in order to improve this disorder. Documents exhibit that integrative ‎therapies are capable of improving different aspects of low back pain and preventing the recurrence of clinical symptoms. The aim of the present study was to determine the effectiveness of hypnotherapy with physiotherapy on low back pain. METHODS: The statistical sample included 28 women who were randomly divided into two groups. One group received hypnotherapy with physiotherapy and the other received pure physiotherapy. The Depression Anxiety and Stress Scales (DASS-21), the Numerical Rating Scale (NRS), the Roland Morris Disability Questionnaire (RDQ) were used to measure the trend of changes (pretest, mid-test, and posttest) of psychological distress, pain intensity, and functional disability. The Hypnotic Induction Profile (HIP) was used to measure suggestibility. In order to analyze data, repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used in SPSS software. RESULTS: The results revealed that hypnotherapy with physiotherapy affects pain intensity in the same way as pure physiotherapy (P < 0.050). Furthermore, it was found that hypnotherapy with physiotherapy is more effective than pure physiotherapy on functional disability (P < 0.050). It was also discovered that only hypnotherapy with physiotherapy can improve psychological distress (P < 0.050). CONCLUSION: It can be concluded that hypnotherapy with physiotherapy can improve pain intensity, functional disability, and psychological distress, and the total effectiveness of hypnotherapy with physiotherapy is more than the total effectiveness of pure physiotherapy.