Waking Hypnosis in the Treatment of MS-related Fatigue

This project will test the efficacy of two different hypnosis approaches for improving MS-related fatigue that have shown to be beneficial for individuals with cancer and other medical conditions in the management of their symptoms. One of these methods, the active-alert hypnosis has helped people to manage fatigue and may have important advantages over the more traditional relaxation hypnotic approaches in the treatment of fatigue, since the hypnotic inductions and the self-hypnosis methods use activation instead of relaxation. Therefore, the goals of this study are to determine if a comparison study of these two hypnotic conditions is feasible, and, if so, to determine which treatment may be more effective for helping individuals with MS gain more control over fatigue. Additionally, it will explore the mechanisms of these two approaches to hypnosis treatment to determine which might be most helpful to individuals with MS and fatigue.