Nowadays, there is a lot of medication available for headaches but not everyone benefits from it.

Some people may experience side effect that outweigh the benefits.

Others may suffer from other conditions and find that their medications don't go well together, or actually prohibit each other.

Others may just not respond well to the drug.

Pregnant women should avoid migraine medication.

People who have used painkillers for a long time may find that they stop being so effective.

Many others just don't like taking tablets.

Headache sufferers need relief. More and more people are looking to complementary or alternative remedies for help.

What's the difference?
Alternative remedies completely replace mainstream medicine.
Complementary remedies may be used alongside allowing drug regimes to continue.

What is hypnosis?
In hypnosis, the person listens to the hypnotist's instruction and gradually reaches a state of deep relaxation.
If it is self-hypnosis, the person follows their own instructions. Once fully relaxed, the person is more open to suggestions from the outside and can receive suggestions on how to help with controlling their headaches.

What will the hypnotist do when I'm 'under'?
The hypnotist may suggest ways of distraction that the person can use to take the focus away from the headache. Suggestion may also be made to lessen the sensations of pain. For example, the suggestion might be that at the first sign of pain, the person will visualize their tight and painful neck muscles gently unknotting and relaxing.

Suggestions on how to cope may be helpful. This could be something like 'When I feel a headache coming on I won't worry. I will stay calm'. This can be effective because once a person has suffered from a severe headache, they will start to tense up if they feel a similar one starting in the future. Tensing the muscles can lead to a headache so it becomes a vicious cycle.

Just relax'
Hypnosis may be of most help in increasing relaxation and the management stress two factors which can work to decrease both the incidence and severity of headaches. Research has shown that people who don't worry about their headaches and feel confident that they can control them, suffer far less than those who are frightened and unsure of how to cope.

Is there any proof that hypnosis works?
The effects of hypnosis on headaches has not been studied extensively. In one interesting study, the headache sufferers had their monoamine oxidase (MAO) levels checked. MAO is what makes serotonin (a naturally occurring chemical) available for the body to use. Low serotonin levels are found in people with depression. Following hypnosis, the serotonin levels were the same as those seen in people who were taking medication to prevent their headaches. So a positive internal chemical change had taken place.

In a study of tension headache sufferers in Holland, it was found that those who were given training in self-hypnosis showed an improvement. They were, however, only equal in effect to simple relaxation exercises.

So should I go for hypnosis?
These results would suggest that learning simple relaxation techniques can be as effective as hypnosis. It really depends which form of therapy you would prefer they both seem to give the same end result.