Jeff Lazarus MD

Warts

A Treatable Condition As I Found Out Myself

Dr. Lazarus became interested in medical hypnosis as a patient himself. After trying traditional therapies for plantar warts every three or four weeks for 15 months without success, Dr. Lazarus recalled that one of his five-year-old patients had rid himself of hundreds of warts with biofeedback/self-hypnosis. He contacted Karen Olness, M.D., Professor of Pediatrics at Case Western Reserve School of Medicine and co-author of the premier book in the field of pediatric hypnotherapy, Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy with Children. She taught Dr. Lazarus the technique of self-hypnosis, and within three weeks, his own warts disappeared- never to return.

Fast Forward To Now.

Warts are caused by viruses in the human papillomavirus (HPV) family. Around the world, prevalence of warts in school-aged children is 10 percent to 20 percent, with incidence peaking between the ages of 12 and 16 years.

At least 60 types of HPV viruses exist, and they can be found on any part of the body. Many people are familiar with plantar warts, which are found on the bottom of the feet. Warts can be frustrating to treat because they are slow-growing.

Traditional medical treatment modalities include freezing and applying topical medication, with strong drugs in a doctor's office or with over-the-counter drugs at home.

Using Medical Hypnosis To Permanently Remove Warts

Typically, if the child is motivated, Dr. Lazarus meets with the patient once or twice. The patient uses age-appropriate visual imagery to get rid of the wart. In a multi-center clinical study, this treatment was shown to be at least as effective as over-the-counter medication. Often, the warts go away within a few weeks.

Felt et al. pulished a paper in the American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis in which they found that the results from hypnosis were equal to or better than those of over the counter medications. (Felt, B.T., Hall, H., Olness, K.N., Schmidt, W., Kohen, D., et al. Wart Regression in Children: Comparison of Relaxation-Imagery to Topical Treatment and Equal Time Interventions. Am J Clin Hypn. 41:2, October 1998: 130-137.)

Eve's Story

Eve, a 10-year-old girl with recalcitrant warts, had been to a dermatologist and received various treatments, all of which were unsuccessful. After having the warts for over a year, she saw Dr. Lazarus. After just two visits, her warts disappeared.

Karen's Story

“One day, I noticed that I had a wart on my foot. My mom brought me in to Dr. Lazarus to see what we could do about the situation. We got in there, and he requested that I talk to my wart! Personally, I thought he was crazy. But, I followed what he told me to do. I felt weird talking to my foot, but every night before I went to bed I told my wart how I wanted it to leave. And soon enough, I noticed my wart starting to disappear. I was so amazed that this crazy idea of his actually worked. It did though. This is my experience with my wart.”
- Karen, now 12 years old about her experience when she was 7 years old

“My daughter awoke one day with a wart on her toe. I told my husband who is a doctor about this wart and asked how we should treat it. He picked something up from the drug store that was over the counter. We used this for a few weeks and did not notice any results. We then found Dr. Lazarus and made an appointment for him to see it. He looked at the wart and gave us a few options. Dr. Lazarus said to Karen that he would prefer her to try something that he feels would really work. He suggested to Karen that she talk to her wart each night or even a few times a day and tell it to go away. I thought to myself with a chuckle, “You’ve got to be kidding me.” I laughed and Dr. Lazarus said if you laugh, don't believe, and you are not serious, this will not work. Karen felt that she would give this a try. He told her to go somewhere private like her bedroom to talk to her wart. Karen went home after seeing him and did it. Within three weeks the wart disappeared and to this day has not returned. We were very grateful and talk about this experience quite frequently.”
- Mother of Karen, now 12 years old, about when her daughter was 7 years old