How children and parents experience home-based guided hypnotherapy: a qualitative study

Ilse Ganzevoort, Adriëlla Van Der Veen, Manna Alma, Marjolein Berger, Gea Holtman

Keywords: qualitative study, children, functional abdominal pain, hypnotherapy, primary care

Background:

A general practitioner (GP) sees many children with functional abdominal pain, gives education and reassurance, but has no treatment to offer. Home-based guided hypnotherapy could be a treatment option, but experiences of patients have not been studied. Insight in experiences could guide implementation in primary care and optimise its use.

Research questions:

How do children and parents experience home-based guided hypnotherapy for functional abdominal pain?

Method:

This study is part of a randomised controlled trial evaluating the (cost-)effectiveness of home-based guided hypnotherapy in primary care. For this qualitative study, we used open-ended questions from the trial questionnaire. We used purposive sampling to invite children and parents for a semi-structured in-person interview. Parents of children with low adherence were interviewed by telephone. Interviews were audio recorded, transcribed verbatim and coded by two authors. We used thematic content analysis to analyse the data.

Results:

Questionnaire data from 54 participants were collected, we interviewed 10 child-parent dyads (20 interviews total), and three parents of children with low adherence. Children were 7-13 years old. Three themes emerged: child, environment, and website. Children’s experience was influenced by their age, character, imagination and creativity, and whether they felt any effect. Children enjoyed hypnotherapy when they experienced less abdominal pain or better sleep, but disliked it when they were unable to surrender to the exercises. The environment (e.g., parent involvement, time) and the website (e.g., looks, voice, functionality) influenced participants’ experiences and adherence. Participants would like a personalised therapy regarding exercise duration and level, looks, voice and a rewarding system.

Conclusions:

This study showed that many children feel positive effects, but their experiences of hypnotherapy vary. Insights provided by this study aid in developing a hypnotherapy application suited to the child’s preferences and needs. Such an accessible treatment option could help GPs in managing children with functional abdominal pain in daily practice.

Points for discussion:

What do GPs need in order to implement home-based hypnotherapy for children?

What did you miss in this study?

What is important to keep in mind when adjusting the intervention based on these results?

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