Our recent update on the success of hypnotherapy treatments which led people to believe they have had gastric band surgery is one of the most popular stories on the Y’All Happy? site.

News stories abound about the success of the virtual surgery in which the patients are hypnotised to believe and behave as if they’ve had the surgery. The story HERE from the US is typical.

However there’s a warning HERE that this type of therapy relies on the placebo effect. People pay a lot of money for this hypnotherapy, they want to make it work, they’ll act in ways that make it work, so it’s money well spent and so they don’t feel stupid when it doesn’t work. However the placebo effect is usually temporary.

It’d be interesting to know your thoughts on the subject.