Hypnosis helps Parkinson's Tremors- a study from Israel

The Department of Neurology at Rambam Hospital in Haifa, Israel conducted a study to examine whether a Parkinson’s Disease (PD) tremor, known to worsen with stress, would improve with  “relaxation guided imagery”  (RGI) and calming music. 

The number of participants in the study was twenty . They had moderate to severe tremors. Relaxation techniques were used. The tremor was objectively monitored using an accelerometer.

All 20 subjects iwith the "relaxation guided imagery"   had dramatically decreased  tremor (baseline 270.38 +/- 85.82 vs. RGI 35.57 +/- 43.90 movements per minute P <>

The average tremor activity remained significantly bellow baseline, at both 15 min and 30 min after imagery was discontinued (P <>

It is interesting to note that the relaxing music also significantly reduced the tremor, but to a lesser degree than imagery (220.04 +/- 106.53 movements per minute P = 0.01).  Even more note worthy was that  simple, self-relaxation had no significant effect on tremor. 

The researchers concluded that RGI can supplement conventional medical treatments for tremor in patients with PD. My focus as a clinical hypnotherapist is that another door has opened for the use of hypnosis. 

Citation:  Schlesinger I, Benyakov O, Erikh I, Suraiya S, Schiller Y.  Parkinson's disease tremor is diminished with relaxation guided imagery. Movement Disorders. 2009 Sep 18. [Epub ahead of print]