Ah, sleep - how wonderful! And now, not having the will or energy to explain in my own words the state of 'artificial somnambulism' which the physician James Braid (1795–1860) called 'neurhypnology', I hope to be forgiven for plummeting once again into the depths of copy-and-paste hell, and now present a portion of this article from Anesthesia & Analgesia, in an effort to fulfil my promise of presenting some information this week on the subject of Neurhypnology. However, before doing so I would urge you to read the article in its original context, where you will find references and further information regarding hypnosis.
neurhypnology n. the term used by the physician James Braid for an altered state of consciousness, also known as 'artificial somnabulism', in which patients appear to be hyperalert, while seemingly being asleep.
Definition courtesy of this article from Anesthesia & Analgesia
A Brief History of Hypnosis and its Entry Into Clinical Practice
Franz Anton Mesmer (1734–1815) brought the medical use of hypnotic phenomena to the attention of the European medical community. He believed there was a magnetic field around and extended through people, and that this "animal magnetism" could be influenced to heal the sick. In treating patients, Mesmer provoked them to enter a trancelike state with changes in physical perception, which would transition into a therapeutic "crisis" when the patients might fall to the floor, faint, lapse into deep sleep, or convulse.
The Marquis de Puységur (1751–1825), a Mesmer disciple, referred to this altered state as "artificial somnabulism" as he noticed patients to be hyperalert, while seemingly being asleep. James Braid (1795– 1860) later called this "neurhypnology," a neurophysiologic variant of sleep. Braid and Alexandre Bertrand (1795–1831), who emphasized the importance of the subject's suggestibility rather than the physician's magnetism, laid the groundwork for a psychological explanation of hypnosis. The term "hypnosis" (from the Greek root "hypnos," sleep) was coined by Etienne Felix d'Henin de Cuvillers in 1820, even though James Braid has often been credited. According to Orne, hypnosis is "a subjective state in which alterations of perception or memory can be elicited by suggestion." This definition will be adopted in the following review.
The documented use of hypnosis as an adjunct to surgical therapy dates back to the 1830s when Jules Cloquet (mastectomy) and John Elliotson (numerous operations) performed major surgical procedures with hypnosis as the only anesthetic. The Scottish physician James Esdaile, who used hypnoanesthesia in approximately 300 surgical patients in India between 1845 and 1851, became the best known early hypnoanesthetist. Almost simultaneous with Esdaile's report, chemical anesthetics (ether 1846, chloroform 1847) were successfully introduced into surgical practice. Hypnosis subsequently became discredited as a therapeutic tool and continued to be used mainly by charlatans and stage hypnotists while diethyl ether and nitrous oxide, drugs that had become known for their use in ether frolics and entertainment, along with chloroform, became standard clinical drugs for anesthesia. Collins puts the discontinuation of hypnosis for anesthesia at about 1860, i.e., the era of the rapid adoption of inhaled anesthesia. Collins mentions that around the turn of the century Freud used hypnosis in psychotherapy, but that anesthesiologists paid little attention to hypnosis until 1955 when the British Medical Association declared that "there is a place for hypnotism in the production of anesthesia or analgesia for surgery and dental operations, and in suitable subjects it is an effective method of relieving pains in childbirth without altering normal course of labor". In 1958 the American Medical Association endorsed the use of hypnotism by physicians while condemning hypnosis for entertainment.
Interest in the clinical applications of hypnosis in anesthesia has been waxing and waning since the end of the Second World War. Clinically hypnosis has been used sporadically in anesthesia in a variety of settings. Rather than an alternative for general anesthesia it has been studied as a complementary technique. Scientific constraints have limited the progress of hypnosis from experimental use to routine clinical practice. It has been difficult, for example, to find measurable physiologic variables identifying the hypnotic state. It is a challenge to reliably and reproducibly measure a hypnotic trance and it is impossible to conduct a double-blind clinical study involving hypnosis. More recently, the trend towards greater prominence of conscious sedation in anesthesia has reawakened the interest in hypnosis. In fact, hypnoanalgesia has emerged as a combination of hypnotic techniques with pharmacological analgesia and sedation, and has found its way into the everyday practice of specialists.
The next article will be on the subject of 'sitology'.
