GSR Analysis Of Hypnotic Analgesia

This work aims to verify whether Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) can be used as a valid pain indicator and to analyze the changes in GSR during hypnotic analgesic condition. Two types of experiments were conducted namely ‘Pain-GSR’ (PG) and ‘Hypnosis-Pain-GSR’ (HPG) experiments for 10 subjects. The experiments were done under pain and no-pain conditions on subjects of both the gender in the age group of 20 to 30 years old. We used 4 iron discs of 1.25 Kg each to create mechanical pain for PG experiment in our laboratory set up. For the HPG experiment, a disposable needle was inserted on subject’s skin to create pain. The HPG experiment was conducted in a clinical setup with the help of an experienced hypnotherapist. The experiments were conducted in same ambient conditions of respective setup. The incremental change in conductivity of skin was observed in ‘During Pain’ stage of PG experiment. In HPG experiment, the conductivity of skin is in same range in ‘Pre Pain without Hypnosis’ and ‘During Pain with Hypnosis’ stages. The results of PG experiment show a clear relation between Pain and GSR and there is a scope for measuring pain objectively using GSR. The results of HPG experiment show that the subjects do not feel pain during hypnotic analgesia, and GSR is a true indicator of pain. However before concluding that GSR is a good indicator of pain, it requires a experimental studies with more subjects.