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Evidence for years has demonstrated that when people are hypnotized there is a relative over-dominance of the right side of the brain to the left side.i,ii As we have seen, this would be expected to cause depressive tendencies.
Hypnotism may heighten depression risk by changes in brain chemistry that occur even when the person is no longer hypnotized.
To fully appreciate this potential, I need to remind you that other areas of the brain are also unbalanced in depression. One of those areas is adjacent to the frontal lobe, called the parietal lobe. Interestingly, research documented a depression-related imbalance in parietal function between the right and left sides. As with the frontal lobes, depressed individuals show greater right parietal lobe activity compared to the left. Of particular relevance, individuals who are highly hypnotizable also have an accentuated right parietal lobe activity (Some individuals can be more easily hypnotized then others).iii
The implication is that individuals who are easy to hypnotize may be at greater risk for depression. Further evidence of such a connection was found in 1998 when researchers in Rome, Italy, found that “high[ly] hypnotizable individuals self-reported greater levels of emotional experiences than did low hypnotizables, especially in terms of negative emotion.”iv
The researchers went on to say that the highly hypnotizable group demonstrated a greater ease of self-generating sad emotions than happy ones. In connection with the sad emotions they demonstrated the expected activation of right sided brain structures. These characteristics suggest a greater risk of depressive tendencies among highly hypnotizable subjects. Not only does hypnotism undermine frontal lobe function, but it may also permanently alter brain processing such a way that depressed thoughts are more easily generated.
Despite those very real concerns with hypnotism it is quite popular. Unknown too many people, hypnotism comes in a variety of forms. There are fairly straightforward medical applications of hypnotism. Medical literature is filled with examples of hypnosis being used for psychiatric and/or behavioural problems, spanning a broad spectrum from traumatic events of childhood to current problems with overeating or nicotine use.
Hypnotism also comes in more subtle forms. Eastern meditation, or yoga, is promoted for stress control. Dr. Freda Morris points out that in many cases it is really a technique of self hypnosis.v For this reason such meditation is potentially dangerous. Read more about yoga
i. L. Frumkin, H. Ripley, G. Cox, "Changes in cerebral hemispheric lateralization with hypnosis," Biol Psychiatry (December 1978): 741-750.
ii. H. Crawford, K. Crawford, B. J. Koperski, "Hypnosis and lateral cerebral function as assessed by dichotic listening," Biol Psychiatry (April 1983): 415-427.
iii. H. Crawford, S. Clarke, M. Kiner-Triolo, "Self-generated happy and sad emotions in low and highly hypnotizable persons during waking and hypnosis: Laterality and regional EEG activity differences," Int J Psychophysiol (December 1996): 239-66.
iv. V. De Pascalis, W. Ray, et al., "EEG activity and heart rate during recall of emotional events in hypnosis: Relationships with hypnotisability and suggestibility," Int J Psychophysiol (August 1998): 255-275.
v. F. Morris, as quoted in J. Mander, Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television (New York, NY: Quill, 1977): 208
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