Am J Psychiatry 1990; 147:69-75
Copyright © 1990 by American Psychiatric Association
Hypnotizability of psychiatric inpatients according to two different scales
HM Pettinati, LG Kogan, FJ Evans, JH Wade, RL Horne and JM Staats
Research Division, Carrier Foundation, Belle Mead, NJ 08502.
Data on the hypnotizability of 113 psychiatric inpatients and 58 normal
control subjects were compared. The patients' mean score on the Hypnotic
Induction Profile was significantly lower than that of the control
subjects, but on the Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale: Form C, these
patients and control subjects did not differ significantly. On both scales
rank-ordered scores of different diagnostic groups of the patients
supported the theory that hypnotizability varies according to type of
psychopathology. Some results, such as the hypnotizability of the
schizophrenic patients, depended on which scale was used. This finding may
explain the conflicting literature on the hypnotic potential of
schizophrenic patients.
