Lightbulb innovation: Alleviating the stress of IBS

On page 19 of the August 2012 issue of RCN Bulletin, Helen Bremner explained how hypnotherapy has been changing the lives of people with IBS. Read more below.Image of a lightbulb with the words lightbulb innovations

“What can I say? I came in a broken man and now I’m fully repaired,” said one of Helen Bremner’s patients after receiving hypnotherapy for his irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). This response to treatment, says Helen, is not unusual. And with up to 20 per cent of UK adults affected by the disorder, such positive feedback offers some hope for the future.

Helen single-handedly developed a pilot community-based IBS hypnotherapy service in the West Midlands. She says it improves patient outcomes and achieves cost savings by encouraging patients to self-manage their symptoms and their stress, reducing GP and hospital appointments and medication use.

Improved self confidence

“Instead of frustrated, bewildered and scared patients, we have empowered, healthy people who have improved their lives. Some have returned to work from long term unemployment, others have gained promotion, others stopped smoking. All have improved their self confidence,” says Helen.

IBS symptom severity can correlate with anxiety and stress and Helen says the service is different from the traditional approach because it facilitates emotional self care. “It gets results for, and with, the patients,” she adds.

It’s not just Helen’s patient feedback that supports the use of hypnotherapy. In February 2008 the National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE) published guidance saying there was good evidence that hypnotherapy is an effective IBS treatment and it could be recommended for intractable IBS.

What is involved?

Patients often visit Helen with abdominal pain or bowel habits that are severely disrupting their quality of life and their first session is a thorough assessment of their symptoms and concerns. Helen says that patients are offered a ‘sample trance’ which demonstrates how relaxed and comfortable they can be, before moving on to therapeutics in later sessions. She gives them a CD to listen to between sessions, to reinforce the work covered during their time with her.

“Subsequent sessions involve listening to the patient describe their challenges and achievements since the previous appointment. Then I ask what they want to address in that session, before using individualised techniques to address their specific concerns. These include guided imagery, such as a ‘control room’, where patients are able to increase or decrease a symptom, such as pain, by imagining turning a dial to where they want it to be. A garden metaphor shares indirect suggestions for bowel control using Whorwell's idea of the gut as a river, and patients are encouraged to adjust the flow of the river until it is right for them,” says Helen.

“Hypnosis is a natural state, rather like daydreaming. We all go into trance several times a day, particularly when we lose track of time reading, chatting or watching TV. It is not sleep, and the patient remains in control, but more willing to accept suggestions. Hypnotherapy uses hypnosis to help the patient relax, and uses imagination and positive suggestions to help them to solve their problems,” she adds.

Aims of Helen’s hypnotherapy service

The future of the service is uncertain but Helen is hopeful that hypnotherapy services will eventually be rolled out nationwide. Despite there still being some suspicion around hypnotherapy as a viable form of treatment, Helen says her results could prove sceptics wrong. “Many patients have told me they don’t have IBS any more, but IBS is supposed to be incurable. I know it might sound miraculous but it really does work.”

If you would like to contact the innovator Helen Bremner, please email the RCN Research and Innovation Team, email: research.innovation@rcn.org.uk.

Accolades

Helen Bremner has won first prize in the Innovation in Patient Care category at the BJN Gastrointestinal Nursing Awards 2012 for her work.

 

If you liked that, you might like this