Subconscious Rewiring

The Research

A living library of over 300 peer-reviewed and scholarly studies on hypnosis and hypnotherapy, organized by condition for easy navigation. This is the science that supports the work.

Research publications in this field have grown at an average of 8.5% annually, reaching a record 134 publications in 2022 alone. In 2021, the National Institutes of Health designated hypnotherapy a treatment approach of high programmatic priority. Studies marked New were published or formally recognized after 2019.

Last updated / March 2026

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If you are new to the evidence base for hypnotherapy, begin here. These are the most significant overarching studies, meta-analyses, and institutional endorsements, chosen to represent the breadth of what hypnosis has been clinically shown to do.

Hypnotherapy has a robust evidence base across the major mental health categories. Meta-analyses from 2019 onward show consistently large effect sizes for hypnosis in reducing anxiety, larger at long-term follow-up than many standard interventions.

Anxiety

Depression

PTSD

Stress and Exam Anxiety

Aging and Cognitive Health

Hypnotherapy has strong evidence across the full arc of women's reproductive health, from fertility through pregnancy, childbirth, and menopause. The menopause section reflects the most significant recent development in the field: in 2023, The Menopause Society awarded clinical hypnosis its highest tier of evidence for hot flash treatment.

Menopause and Hot Flashes New Category

Since 2019, multiple high-quality RCTs and a landmark institutional endorsement have established clinical hypnosis as a first-line, evidence-based option for hot flashes. It is now one of only two nonpharmacological treatments with Level I evidence. Recent comparative research shows hypnosis outperforms CBT on key outcomes.

Fertility

Pregnancy

Childbirth and HypnoBirthing

Pain is the most extensively researched application of clinical hypnosis. Meta-analyses now encompass thousands of participants across chronic pain, procedural pain, surgical pain, and condition-specific pain. The evidence consistently shows medium-to-large analgesic effects, and hypnosis is increasingly recommended alongside or in place of opioid-based pain management.

Foundational Meta-Analyses

Headaches and Migraines

Fibromyalgia

Chronic, Neuropathic and Pediatric Pain

Clinical hypnosis has been used as an adjunct or replacement for general anesthesia, for procedural anxiety and pain reduction, and for accelerating recovery across a wide range of medical and surgical contexts. Cancer care, IBS, and surgery have the largest and most rigorous evidence bases.

Surgery and Wound Healing

Cancer Care

Cancer is one of the most extensively studied areas of clinical hypnosis, with applications from surgical preparation and chemotherapy side effect management through to pain control and palliative care.

Irritable Bowel Syndrome

IBS is one of the best-studied applications of hypnotherapy. A 2024 review called gut-directed hypnotherapy "one of the rare success stories of hypnosis in medicine." It is now formally endorsed by both European and North American gastroenterology guidelines as a second-line treatment.

Burns

Diabetes, Hypertension and Other Medical Conditions

Hypnotherapy has a long evidence base in smoking cessation, weight management, and addiction treatment. The smoking cessation literature is particularly strong: multiple studies show hypnotherapy outperforms nicotine replacement therapy and produces significant long-term quit rates.

Smoking Cessation

Weight Management

Addiction

Hypnotherapy has demonstrated benefits for insomnia, parasomnias, and restorative sleep quality. A notable 2014 study found that hypnosis literally extends the duration of slow-wave deep sleep, with implications for aging, immunity, and cognitive function.

Hypnosis enhances focus, imagery vividness, motor learning, and psychological readiness across athletic and academic domains. Research consistently shows benefits for sports performance, flow state entry, academic achievement, and language acquisition.

Sports Performance

Academic Performance and Learning

Hypnotherapy has a strong evidence base for fear-based and behavioral conditions including phobias, trichotillomania, tics, and HPV-related immune responses. For phobias in particular, the speed of resolution under hypnosis is often dramatically faster than standard exposure therapy.

Dental and Medical Fears

Specific Phobias

Tics and Tourette Syndrome

Trichotillomania (Hair-Pulling)

Warts and HPV

Wart regression through hypnosis is one of the best-replicated phenomena in psychosomatic medicine, demonstrating direct mind-body modulation of the immune response to HPV.

Other Behavioral Conditions

Hypnotherapy has been studied for neurological conditions including Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis, stroke recovery, tinnitus, and bruxism. The common thread is hypnosis' ability to modulate neuromuscular control, pain processing, and psychological adaptation to chronic illness.

Parkinson's Disease

Multiple Sclerosis

Stroke Recovery

Tinnitus

Bruxism (Teeth Grinding)

Stuttering

Persistent Genital Arousal Disorder (PGAD)

Research on hypnotherapy for men's health spans sexual function, prostate cancer treatment side effects, and surgical anxiety. The evidence for psychogenic erectile dysfunction is particularly strong, with hypnosis outperforming both testosterone and pharmaceutical interventions in controlled trials.

Sexual Health and Function

  • Hypnosis Better Than Placebo or Testosterone for Male Sexual Dysfunction: An RCT

    79 men with non-organic impotence randomized to testosterone, trazodone, hypnosis, or placebo. Hypnosis achieved an 80% improvement rate, outperforming both testosterone (60%) and trazodone (67%), and was the only treatment statistically superior to placebo. British Journal of Urology, 1996.

  • The Hypnotherapeutic Treatment of Impotence

    Classic clinical study establishing hypnotherapy as an effective treatment for psychogenic erectile dysfunction, addressing both psychological and physiological dimensions through structured suggestion protocols.

  • Hypnosis for Erectile Dysfunction (Araoz, 2005)

    Review of the Ericksonian hypnotic approach to erectile dysfunction, addressing cognitive, emotional, and relational factors. Discusses the role of performance anxiety and negative self-suggestion in psychogenic ED.

  • Hypnotherapy for Psychogenic Impotence: 3,000 Patients with 88% Success Rate (Crasilneck, 1990)

    A Dallas-based clinician reported treating approximately 3,000 patients for hypnogenic impotence with an 88% success rate using structured hypnotherapy. One of the largest case series in the literature on male sexual dysfunction and hypnosis.

    Search: "Crasilneck hypnosis psychogenic impotence" to find citation.

Prostate Cancer and Treatment Side Effects

Men undergoing prostate cancer treatment, particularly androgen deprivation therapy (ADT), frequently experience hot flashes, fatigue, mood changes, and anxiety. Hypnotherapy has been studied as a nonhormonal, non-pharmaceutical option for managing these treatment-related side effects.

The skin and immune system are particularly responsive to hypnosis-based suggestion, reflecting the deep connections between the nervous system and immune function. These studies offer some of the most direct evidence of mind-body causation in medicine.

Allergies and Immune Modulation

Warts (see also: Phobias, Fears and Behavioral Responses)

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Research library / Amanda K. Reilly-Johnson, LMHC / Subconscious Rewiring

Last updated March 2026  /  New = published or recognized after 2019

All studies linked to PubMed or the publisher's original page where available.

For broken links, search the study title at pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov or scholar.google.com.