Cochrane 2019: hypnotherapy for smoking cessation

Barnes J, McRobbie H, Dong CY, Walker N, Hartmann-Boyce J. Hypnotherapy for smoking cessation. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2019, Issue 6. Art. No.: CD001008. DOI 10.1002/14651858.CD001008.pub3.

This is a review explainer, not a new trial. It is the evidence filter this cluster uses.

Key evidence

The review included 14 parallel RCTs (one cluster-RCT) with 1926 participants and follow-up of at least six months. Search date: 18 July 2018. Six trials were from the United States, four from Canada, and one each from the UK, Australia, Germany, and Switzerland. Samples were typically small (20 to 360). Only Batra 2013, Carmody 2008, and Dickson-Spillmann 2013 put more than 100 people in each arm.

The 2019 update added three trials: Batra 2013, Dickson-Spillmann 2013, and Hasan 2014. That Hasan is a smoking trial in this review. It is not an IBS paper.

Authors’ conclusions, paraphrased from the review: insufficient evidence that hypnotherapy is more effective than other behavioural support or unassisted quitting; if a benefit is present it is small at most; very little evidence on harms; large high-quality RCTs are still needed.

The plain-language page is the public restatement. This wiki does not invent a pooled odds ratio the review declined to print as a single headline.

Limitations

Interventions labelled “hypnotherapy” were not one method. Most studies did not report a proper sample-size calculation. Adverse events were rarely collected. Certainty was low to very low.

What we don't know yet

Trials published after July 2018 are outside this update. A later Cochrane refresh would change this page, not a marketing brochure.

This page is informational only. It is not personal medical advice.