Hypnosis? | Autism PDD

OK, this is a completely random thought.

I was just reading NYMommy's post about her son's fear of the toilet, and was also thinking about Allegra's Sharlet and her fear of the bath, and I then started thinking about how my MIL had a fear of flying and underwent hypnosis therapy to help with it.

Has anyone out there tried hypnosis therapy for an ASD child to help overcome a fear/phobia? Has anyone ever had this suggested by a physician? Or even investigated it as an option? Or am I just nuts and I should just shut up and go to bed now?

I apologize in advance if this is a really dumb idea, but I'm just trying to think out of the box a bit...

interesting idea. I only think it would work for kids with good verbal
(particularly receptive) skills though. Also, I wonder how ASD kids respond
to hypnosis? Some people are really hard to hypnotize, and it definitely
involves a certain amount of willingness and trust on the part of the person
being hypnotized - not sure if that would work with an ASD kiddo?

My son is fascinated by hypnosis, so he would probably be a willing subject but it would probably take a little experimentation to find a way that kept him focused in the trance process. I found this blog entry that suggests that it's pretty much uncharted territory, at least it was in late 2005.

Tuesday, November 22, 2005

Autism and hypnosis: an interesting research possibility?

I studied hypnosis as a medical student. It was fascinating, but I never did work it into my clinical practice. For one thing, it takes practice to do and time to apply. I'd mostly forgotten about that course, but a New York Times review brought some of it back. The article's research descriptions of hypnotism, belief, perception, and the relationship to hyperconcentration led me to wonder how the studies would work if the subjects were autistic. How would the functional MRIs compare? A google search finds many uninteresting references to hypnotism and autism, but a PubMed search comes up with almost nothing. An interesting research opportunity?

http://bestyoucanbe.blogspot.com/2005/11/autism-and-hypnosis -interesting.html