The publisher Taylor & Francis has released a list of its most-read papers of 2014, the best bit of which is the free access to the full text articles. There are some interesting papers in the hypnosis section including the following articles addressing chronic pain, ego-state therapy, and dental phobia.

Adachi, T., Fujino, H., Nakae, A., Mashimo, T., & Sasaki1, J. (2014). A Meta-Analysis of Hypnosis for Chronic Pain Problems: A Comparison Between Hypnosis, Standard Care, and Other Psychological Interventions. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 62(1), 1-28.

Hypnosis is regarded as an effective treatment for psychological and physical ailments. However, its efficacy as a strategy for managing chronic pain has not been assessed through meta-analytical methods. The objective of the current study was to conduct a meta-analysis to assess the efficacy of hypnosis for managing chronic pain. When compared with standard care, hypnosis provided moderate treatment benefit. Hypnosis also showed a moderate superior effect as compared to other psychological interventions for a nonheadache group. The results suggest that hypnosis is efficacious for managing chronic pain. Given that large heterogeneity among the included studies was identified, the nature of hypnosis treatment is further discussed.

Alladin, A. (2014). Healing the wounded self: Combining hypnotherapy with ego state therapy. American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, 56(1), 3-22.

The purpose of this article is to formulate a theoretical conceptualization for utilizing ego state therapy (EST) as an adjunct with cognitive hypnotherapy (CH) for depression. As the relationship between life events and onset of depression is very complex, it is not clear from current literature how stressors cause depressive symptoms. The notion of “wounded self,” derived from the work of Wolfe (2005, 2006), is examined as a potential unifying concept for binding the role of risk factors in the precipitation of depression. By incorporating wounded self, the circular feedback model of depression, on which CH for depression is based, is expanded. This revised version provides conceptual and empirical underpinnings for integrating EST with CH in the management of depression.

Meyerson, J., & Uziel, N. (2014). Application of Hypno-Dissociative Strategies During Dental Treatment of Patients With Severe Dental Phobia. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 62(2), 179-187.

Dental phobia is a well-known condition that may prevent patients from receiving adequate dental care. Dentists offer varied methods to help their patients overcome their phobic reactions and to enable them to proceed with needed dental treatment. These methods include diverse medical and behavioral interventions that are generally intended to regulate physiological, behavioral, cognitive, and emotional expressions of stress. Some patients with severe dental phobia together with actual or assumed traumatic background are only minimally responsive to these stress management procedures. The authors propose hypnotically induced dissociative strategies as a model of intervention for this category of dental phobic patients. The proposed model can help reduce or even suspend symptomatic behavior during dental treatment.