Ernil Hansen is Professor of Anaesthesiology at the University Hospital of Regensburg, Germany, with doctor degrees in Biochemistry (PhD) and Medicine (MD). He is an active member and in the scientific board of the MEG (German Milton-Erickson-Society of Clinical Hypnosis).2022 he received the MEG honorary award. His main fields of scientific interest are hypnosis-based therapeutic communication, the integration of hypnosis into clinical medicine and medical education, placebo/nocebo and suggestion research, a less traumatic informed consent, trance state monitoring, and awake-craniotomy (brain surgery) without medication. He teaches students, nurses and doctors in communication skills (“Words like Medicine”). His latest researchcentred around the measurement of suggestion effects by dynamometry that allowed objective evaluation of verbal and non-verbal suggestions from clinical everyday life. The use of a uniform parameter allows comparison of the effects, generation and evaluation of alternative formulations, and eventually evidence based improvement of therapeutic communication. Moreover, in a multicentre study, published in BMJ, he showed that patients respond to hypnotic communicationeven under general anaesthesia with reduced postoperative pain, nausea, and demand for analgesics and anti-emetics, stimulating communication with the unconscious.
References:
Häuser W, Hagl M, Schmierer A, Hansen E: The efficacy, safety and applications of medical hypnosis – A systematic review of meta-analyses. DtschArztebl Int 2016; 113(17): 289-96
Hansen E, Seemann M, Zech N, Doenitz C, Luerding R, Brawanski A. Awake craniotomies without any sedation: The awake-awake-awake technique. Acta Neurochir 2013; 155(8):1417-1424
Rosendahl J, Koranyi S, Jacob D, Zech N, Hansen E. Efficacy of therapeutic suggestions under general anesthesia: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials. BMC Anesth 2016; 16:125. DOI 10.1186/s12871-016-0292-0
Hansen E, Zech N. Nocebo effects and negative suggestions in daily clinical practice – forms, impact and approaches to avoid them. Front Pharmacol 2019; 10:77. DOI: 10.3389/fphar.2019.00077
Zech N, Schrödinger M, Seemann M, Zeman F, Seyfried TF, Hansen E. Time dependent negative effects of verbal and nonverbal suggestions in surgical patients – A study on arm muscle strength. Front Psychol 2020; 11:1693. DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01693
Nowak H, Zech N, Asmussen S, Rahmel T, Tryba M, Oprea G, Grause L, Schork K, Moeller M, Loeser J, Gyarmati K, Mittler C, Saller T, Zagler A, Lutz K, Adamzik M, Hansen E. Effect of therapeutic suggestions during general anaesthesia on postoperative pain and opioid use – multicentrerandomised controlled trial. Brit Med J 2020; 371:m4284. DOI: 10.1136/bmj.m4284