A hypnotherapeutic approach to the treatment of myalgic encephalomyelitis (M.E.)

[摘要] In the absence of a reliable biological marker, much professional and public non-acceptancesurrounds the diagnosis of M.E. using the diagnostic criteria formulated by the Centre forDisease Control (CDC) (Fukada et al, 1994) in Atlanta, Georgia, or the Oxford (Sharpe et al(1991)) or Australian (Lloyd et al, 1988) criteria. Research thus far has focused primarily onthe etiology of the disease from a medical bias debating whether M.E. is a physical orpsychological disease (Hyde, Bastien & Jain, 1992; Hickie, Lloyd & Wakefield, 1992). ThisCartesian dichotomy between mind and body is presently challenged by the burgeoningevidence from psychoneuroimmunology and clinical hypnotherapy that mind and bodyshould be conceptualised as interreactive, specifically that emotion drives the body (Rossi,1994). In practical terms the M.E. patient typically is unable to manage home or employmentduties for periods from one to three years, sometimes longer. Medical attention is focused onalleviating symptomatology with limited temporary effect; the sparse attention given topsychological programmes in the literature focuses on cognitive behavioural therapy (Sharpe,1996), but in practice, purely cognitive interventions suitable for depressed patients aregenerally ineffectual with M.E. sufferers, especially in the initial stages, because of theorganic nature of the disease. (Shepherd, 1996).This research aims to describe a different therapeutic approach to M.E. using the paradigmsand power for change of clinical hypnotherapy:i) the chief need in the literature is for an effective therapeutic model for interventionand rehabilitation to the highest possible level of function in the shortest possible timebased onii) a study which furthers the understanding of interreactive physiological, cognitiveand affective aspects of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis which would be useful to both medicalpersonnel and psychologists.

[发布机构] University of the Free State