Efficacy of Hypnosis and Catalepsy Induction in Functional Neurological Disorders

Patients with Functional Neurological Disorder (FND) experience complex patterns of motor and/or sensory symptoms. Treatment studies of psychological interventions are promising but limited.

The aim of the current pilot study is to investigate the effect of treatment consisting of a combination of hypnosis and catalepsy induction on FND symptom severity.

A within-subject waiting list-control design was used with 46 patients diagnosed with FND. The treatment consisted of 10 sessions. The primary outcome measure was FND symptom severity (The Psychogenic Movement Disorder Rating Scale; PMDRS). The secondary outcome measures were psychological distress and quality of life.

The repeated measures (RM) ANOVA for the PMDRS as outcome measure revealed a significant effect for time with a large effect size (η²  = 0.679). Pairwise comparisons indicated that the effect of time in the treatment period was significant for the measure of FND symptom severity, whereas the waiting list period was not. The effect remained stable even at 8 weeks post treatment. As for the additional measurement, general psychological distress and quality of life, no statistically significant differences between individual time points were found.

This pilot study showed that eight sessions of treatment consisting of a combination of hypnosis and catalepsy induction was effective in reducing FND symptom severity. Some explanations and limitations are provided in the paper as well as several avenues of future research.