Assessment of Quality and Reliability of YouTube Videos on Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy including Hypnosis

Hypnosis combined with cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT-hypnosis) is a type of psychological treatment that focuses on how people think and behave in various mental and medical illnesses. It treats behavioral and emotional issues by tapping into the subconscious mind. Patients who are hypnotized are more open to new ideas and less prone to decline hard ones. The result is that it is simpler to adopt the healthy cognitive patterns and habits that CBT tries to promote. YouTube is a great resource for health-related education that has the power to greatly impact the choices and actions of medical professionals, patients, and their primary caregivers, because they visit the YouTube platform to investigate and obtain guidance regarding CBT-hypnosis. However, unreliable and deceptive information on YouTube could encourage undesirable habits, making patients, primary caregivers, and hypnosis practitioners avoid CBT-hypnosis. Thus, the purpose of this study was to assess the quality and reliability of YouTube videos about CBT-hypnosis as a source of supportive information for practitioners, patients, and their primary caregivers. A total of 354 YouTube videos about CBT-hypnosis were analyzed. The videos' reliability and quality were assessed using the Global Quality Scale and a modified DISCERN tool. The analysis found that the median overall GQS score was 3 (IQR: 2; min-max: 1-5), indicating that the videos had moderate quality and some important information was adequately covered. The modified DISCERN tool yielded a median total score of 3 (IQR: 1; min-max: 0-5), indicating that the videos were moderately reliable and that the information was presented in a balanced and unbiased manner. Most of the included videos came from science and technology sources (academic channels) (57.6%; n = 204). While 42.4% of videos came from non-profits and activism, people and blogs, and others lay in public. As a supportive source of information, YouTube videos about CBT-hypnosis are regarded as being of a moderate level of quality and reliability. Therefore, formal presenters should promote the distribution of good-quality content, which helps to improve the quality of information available on the YouTube platform.