Acupuncture and Hypnosis for Pain Management in a Child with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia: A Single-Case Experimental Design

Burn and wound care process for children is very painful and distressing. Hypnosis is used as a technique to reduce pain and anxiety caused by burns in adults. Acupuncture is also applied to reduce pain and improve psychological indices. However, the effectiveness of the two treatments in children has not been compared so far. In a single-case experimental design, from October 2015 to June 2016, an eight-year-old child with acute lymphoblastic leukemia and a severe left-hand burn was selected through the purposely sampling method and was treated in the form of a reverse A1B1A2B2 design in four time intervals, including sham, acupuncture, natural hypnosis, and clinical hypnosis, and was evaluated over a 24-week period. Data were analyzed via generalized estimation equation (GEE) and Repeated Measures Correlation (rmcorr) SPSS version 22. The primary outcomes showed that hypnosis had a significant effect on pain and anxiety (all P values < 0.05) and did not have any effect on the salivary cortisol level (P = 0.93). Additionally, acupuncture had a significant effect on reducing the pain, anxiety, and cortisol levels (all P values < 0.05). Secondary outcomes revealed a significant positive correlation between pain, anxiety, and cortisol (all P values < 0.01). The results of this study, consistent with the research background, indicated the effectiveness of each treatment on specific physical and psychological indices. These results can be considered in designing appropriate therapeutic programs although the explanation of the gap between the effectiveness of the two treatments requires further studies.