HYPNOsis in the Management of Atopic Dermatitis in Children and Teenagers
For patients and families
In plain language
An automatic summary of structured registry data. It is an orientation aid, not a substitute for the official protocol or a physician assessment.
- What is being studied
- The protocol lists: Hypnosis.
- Who it may be relevant to
- Registry conditions: Dermatitis. Basic parameters: 8 years — 17 years · All.
- What needs checking
- Age, condition and sex are only basic indicators. Prior treatment, laboratory values and other mandatory requirements appear in the eligibility criteria below.
- Where it takes place
- Reunion
- Next step
- Save the trial, show it to the treating physician, and confirm current recruitment with the study center. Costs, documents and travel →
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Official title
HYPNOsis in the Management of Atopic Dermatitis in Children and Teenagers : Study Protocol of a Pilot Randomized and Controlled Trial
Overview
Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a chronic inflammatory dermatosis, common in children. It causes pruritus and skin lesions that can have a significant impact on patients' quality of life. AD can be difficult to treat because of its chronicity, demanding local care, corticophobia and the financial cost of non-reimbursed products. Patients are often looking for therapeutic alternatives. Medical hypnosis is a therapeutic alternative via hypnoanalgesia induced by direct suggestions of comfort and skin soothing and via anxiolysis, by working on stress management and self-esteem reinforcement. Four studies are interested in its action in AD and seem to show a reduction in pruritus, skin pain, an improvement in the intensity of atopic dermatitis, sleep, mood and for some a cure of AD. These results are encouraging but limited by the absence of a control group or by the small population included. Therefore, we propose in a first step to evaluate the feasibility of an hypnosis program through a pilot study, designed in the miniature format of a future, larger scale, randomized controlled trial.
Interventions
- Behavioral Hypnosis
The experimental group will receive 2 standardized hypnosis sessions via the "superhero costume" technique performed during this collective therapeutic education program, completed by a reinforcement through the practice of self-hypnosis at home guided by the listening of an audio recording
Primary outcome measures
- Asses the patient recruitment rate [Time frame: 24 months]
Secondary outcome measures (6)
- Assess patient compliance with self-hypnosis practice [Time frame: At 1 month, 3 months, and 6 months after inclusion]
- Patient lost sight of [Time frame: At 1 month, 3 months, and 6 months after inclusion]
- Patient satisfaction [Time frame: At 1 month, 3 months, and 6 months after inclusion]
- Improvements to the hypnosis program [Time frame: At 6 months after inclusion]
- Effectiveness [Time frame: At 1 month, 3 months, and 6 months after inclusion]
- Parents' overall impression [Time frame: At 1 month, 3 months, and 6 months after enrollment]
Eligibility criteria
Inclusion criteria
- Children aged 8 to 17 years
- Understanding french
- Have a clinical diagnosis of mild-to-severe AD with a SCORing Atopic Dermatitis (SCORAD)
- Referred by their referring physician in the Reunionese therapeutic education program for AD provided within the atopy school of the Reunion University Hospital. - Oral consent of the child and of one of the legal representatives collected.
Exclusion criteria
- Children refusing to participate in the hypnosis session
- Not having the possibility to listen to an audio file,
- Already practicing self-hypnosis for their AD before inclusion,
- Having a contraindication to hypnosis (psychiatric disorders, psychosis)
- Treated by a systemic treatment for their AD.
Criteria are shown verbatim from the registry (in English). Final eligibility is always assessed by the study center.
Healthy volunteers: No
Study design
- Allocation
- Randomized
- Model
- Parallel assignment
- Masking
- Open label
- Primary purpose
- Supportive care
Study locations
Reunion · 1 center
- CHU de la Réunion — Saint-Denis
Publications
- Thysebaert Z, Espagnon C, Bocquet V, Bruneau L, Miquel J. Applying medical hypnosis in the management of atopic dermatitis in children and young adolescents: study protocol for a pilot cluster randomised controlled trial (Hypno-AD). BMJ Open. 2026 Mar 18;16(3):e110921. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2025-110921. PMID 41857860
Identifiers
NCT: NCT05611346 · 2022/CHU/15