How to find research on hypnotherapy

“Where do I find research on hypnosis and xyz?”, is the most common question I get asked as NCH research director, and in my job as a trainer. See my news item in the current NCH journal for more information on searching for studies online, and also the table of Empirically-Validated Treatments in hypnotherapy for additional references to well-designed research studies.

There are several research journals in the field of hypnosis. The most important is the International Journal for Clinical & Experimental Hypnosis (IJCEH). The good news is that the publishers of IJCEH provide a superb “advanced” search facility, free of charge, on their website. It contains the abstracts from every single article published since the launch of the journal in 1953. Full copies of the articles can also be purchased online (this is not cheap). The abstracts will usually contain a brief report of the results of the study, though. See the link below. If you’re looking for research on hypnosis and diabetes just type “diabetes” in the search box under the picture of the journal cover (4 hits),

Search IJCEH for hypnosis research online

The American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis (AJCH) is perhaps the second most influential research journal in the field of hypnosis. Many of its articles are available via the website below,

Search AJCH for hypnosis research online

You can also search PubMed, the public medical resesarch database of US Government’s National Library of Medicine, which contains citations for most of the studies published on hypnotherapy. This database also contains many links to full PDF copies of articles available online, and its archive goes back to 1948. Just type in “Hypnotherapy diabetes” to find research, for example, on hypnosis and diabetes (31 hits).

Search PubMed for hypnosis research online

There are many other journals and search engines available online, including the excellent Google Scholar, where you can easily find references to most of the published articles about hypnosis.

Google Scholar Search Online

Donald Robertson
NCH Research Director