Masking physical pathology could be a very delicate outcome of hypnosis where the patient has pain because of a physical condition and is now completely controlled by hypnosis. The reason for the physical discomfort is now totally overlooked thus creating other problems. Hypnosis may be a useful technique with severely disturbed patients but should be used only by well-trained therapists. Never use hypnosis to treat a condition that you would not be qualified to treat without hypnosis. Hypnosis has the potential of facilitating treatment in many clinical areas.
Accurate diagnosis is necessary for treatment to be started.
It is a myth that hypnosis is not a beneficial intervention with psychotic or borderline patients, however certain guidelines and caution should be observed. Hypnosis must be used permissively, allowing patients to determine when hypnotherapy is used. A Multidisciplinary Approach and by Baker in A Hypnotherapeutic Approach to Enhance Object Relatedness in Psychotic Patients in the International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis 29.136- 147. In summary, hypnosis when properly used is one of the safest tools in the healing profession. As clinicians using hypnosis to help with treatment we need to be aware of the adverse effects when hypnosis is misused.