Hypnobiome: A New, Potential Frontier of Hypnotherapy in the Treatment of Irritable Bowel Syndrome-A Narrative Review of the Literature

Physiological Correlates of Hypnotizability: Hypnotic Behaviour and Prognostic Role in Medicine

Studies in the field of experimental hypnosis highlighted the role of hypnotizability in the physiological variability of the general population. It is associated, in fact, with a few differences which are observable in the ordinary state of consciousness and in the absence of suggestions. The aim of the present scoping review is summarizing them and indicate their relevance to the neural mechanisms of hypnosis and to the prognosis and treatment of a few medical conditions. Individuals with high, medium and low hypnotizability scores display different cerebral functional differences-i.e., functional equivalence between imagery and perception/action, excitability of the motor cortex, interoceptive accuracy-possibly related to brain structural and functional characteristics, and different control of blood supply at peripheral and cerebral level, likely due to different availability of endothelial nitric oxide. These differences are reviewed to support the idea of their participation in hypnotic behaviour and to indicate their prognostic and therapeutic usefulness in a few medical conditions.

Irritable bowel syndrome: Epidemiology, overlap disorders, pathophysiology and treatment

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a common chronic gastrointestinal disease with a significant impact on patients' quality of life and a high socioeconomic burden. And the understanding of IBS has changed since the release of the Rome IV diagnosis in 2016. With the upcoming Rome V revision, it is necessary to review the results of IBS research in recent years. In this review of IBS, we can highlight future concerns by reviewing the results of IBS research on epidemiology, overlap disorders, pathophysiology, and treatment over the past decade and summarizing the latest research.

From Research to Clinical Practice

The lead article of this issue of the International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis (IJCEH) is a landmark report from an international task force that provides contemporary guidelines for evaluating the efficacy of clinical hypnosis interventions. This is a very important article that can inform clinical practice as well as future research. Further, this issue of the IJCEH includes a study of the role of hypnotizability in well-being and health which has implications for positive psychology interventions integrating clinical hypnosis. Also, another study in this issue of the IJCEH reports the impressive results from the one year follow-up from a randomized clinical trial of self-hypnosis and self-care among cancer patients. The findings from these studies point to the role of clinical hypnosis in well-being and self-care. Additional articles provide insights from virtual reality hypnosis in pain research and the relationship between beliefs and hypnotizability. The final article presents new research on the feasibility of an on-line hypnosis intervention for women with persistent pelvic pain.