A Treatable Condition As I Found Out Myself
Dr. Lazarus became interested in medical hypnosis as a patient himself. After trying traditional therapies for plantar warts every three or four weeks for 15 months without success, Dr. Lazarus recalled that one of his five-year-old patients had rid himself of hundreds of warts with biofeedback/self-hypnosis. He contacted Karen Olness, M.D., Professor of Pediatrics at Case Western Reserve School of Medicine and co-author of the premier book in the field of pediatric hypnotherapy, Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy with Children. She taught Dr. Lazarus the technique of self-hypnosis, and within three weeks, his own warts disappeared – never to return.
Fast Forward To Now.
Warts are caused by viruses in the human papillomavirus (HPV) family. Around the world, prevalence of warts in school-aged children is 10 percent to 20 percent, with incidence peaking between the ages of 12 and 16 years.
At least 60 types of HPV viruses exist, and they can be found on any part of the body. Many people are familiar with plantar warts, which are found on the bottom of the feet. Warts can be frustrating to treat because they are slow-growing.
Traditional medical treatment modalities include freezing and applying topical medication, with strong drugs in a doctor’s office or with over-the-counter drugs at home.
Using Medical Hypnosis To Permanently Remove Warts
Typically, if the child is motivated, Dr. Lazarus meets with the patient once or twice. The patient uses age-appropriate visual imagery to get rid of the wart. In a multi-center clinical study, this treatment was shown to be at least as effective as over-the-counter medication. Often, the warts go away within a few weeks.
Felt et al. pulished a paper in the American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis in which they found that the results from hypnosis were equal to or better than those of over the counter medications. (Felt, B.T., Hall, H., Olness, K.N., Schmidt, W., Kohen, D., et al. Wart Regression in Children: Comparison of Relaxation-Imagery to Topical Treatment and Equal Time Interventions. Am J Clin Hypn. 41:2, October 1998: 130-137.)