What we don't know about hypnotherapy for smoking

Grade B is not a shrug. It means the question has been studied and the answer is still modest and messy. These are the holes Cochrane 2019 left visible.

Key evidence

The review asked for further large, high-quality randomised trials and better safety assessment. That request is still the headline gap. A trial that is independently run, biochemically verified, and powered to compare one named hypnotherapy protocol with intensive counselling is the study that would move this cluster.

Cochrane found very little evidence on adverse effects. One comparison with relaxation did not find a difference on an adverse-event index. Absence of reports is not a completed safety programme.

Carmody 2008 leaves a depression-history subgroup on the table. It is not a personalisation rule.

Hypnotic susceptibility has a laboratory literature. Credible susceptibility-to-quit-outcome research for smoking is not established here.

Limitations

“We don’t know” is not “it does not work.” It is also not permission to fill the gap with a 90% claim.

What we don't know yet

Cost-effectiveness versus standard stop-smoking care, including Australian settings, is not estimated from this trial set. App and remote packages are a different evidence pile; they are not smuggled into this launch.

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