People with severe chest pain that is not caused by a heart condition may be helped by hypnotherapy, the results of a new study indicate.

According to the researchers, for one in three patients suffering from chest pain thought to be caused by coronary heart disease, no identifiable cause can be found.

This is known as non-cardiac chest pain. However despite being told there is nothing to worry about, those affected can be severely incapacitated by it. Young women seem to be particularly prone to this condition.

The researchers randomly divided 28 patients with non-cardiac chest pain into two groups. One group received 12 sessions of hypnotherapy over the course of 17 weeks, while the other group were given 'supportive therapy' and a placebo.

Of the patients treated with hypnotherapy, 80% reported significant pain relief, even though there was no change in the frequency of bouts of pain. In the other group, just 23% reported significant pain relief.

Hypnotherapy also appeared to significantly improve the sense of overall wellbeing and reduced the use of painkillers and other drugs prescribed to control the condition. In comparison, the control group increased their drug intake.

The researchers noted that hypnotherapy did not affect levels of anxiety or depression, which remained the same as before.

"Hypnotherapy is labour intensive and therefore expensive, but so too are the many investigations and drugs given to patients with non-cardiac chest pain", the researchers from Manchester said.

Details of this study are published in the medical journal, Gut.