Treatment outcome expectancies and hypnotic susceptibility as moderators of pain reduction in patients with chronic tension-type headache.

The aim of this study was to determine whether hypnotic susceptibility (a) predicts pain reduction posttreatment and at follow-up independent of generic expectations of treatment outcome and mode of treatment and (b) predicts persistence of pain reduction during the follow-up period. In 169 patients with chronic tension-type headaches randomly allocated to either self-hypnosis or autogenic training, pain reduction posttreatment and at follow-up was significantly associated with hypnotic susceptibility independent of generic expectations of treatment outcome and treatment condition. Moreover, it was found that early responders obtained significantly higher hypnotic susceptibility scores than nonresponders, although there were no significant differences in hypnotic susceptibility between late responders in comparison to early and nonresponders. However, almost one fourth of those who were nonresponders posttreatment did respond at follow-up.