Showing papers in "The Practitioner in 1964"

Influence of menstruation on health and disease.

Abstract: likely to say that as a whole their labour had been painful. Only 10% of the hypnosis group had a first stage exceeding thirty hours, compared with about 50% in both the relaxation and untreated groups. In the hypnosis group, in fact, 50% had a first stage lasting ten hours or less, whereas in the relaxation and untreated groups this median value was at about sixteen hours. In respect of these results, there were no significant differences between personality types. Among women who were not in the neurotic extrovert category, only about 12% of those with hypnotic training had a second stage lasting eighty minutes or more, as compared with some 32% of the remainder. The median duration was thirty-eight minutes for the hypnotized subjects compared with fifty-one minutes for the others. Hypnotic training did not, however, seem to be associated with any reduction in duration for neurotic extroverts. From the questionnaire responses it appeared that the hypnosis group found labour less unpleasant than the untreated group, while the relaxation group found it more unpleasant. This finding was particularly clear cut for stable women having a rather long second stage. All the findings reported here survived the usual tests of statistical significance. It is hoped that more detailed accounts of the work may be published elsewhere at a later date.