Am J Psychiatry 1992; 149:1521-1525
Copyright © 1992 by American Psychiatric Association
Psychopathology, hypnotizability, and dissociation
EJ Frischholz, LS Lipman, BG Braun and RG Sachs
Dissociative Disorders Program, Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center, Chicago, IL.
OBJECTIVE: The purpose of the study was to replicate and extend previous
findings regarding the hypnotizability of different clinical groups.
METHOD: The authors compared the differential hypnotizability of four
psychiatric groups--patients with dissociative disorders (N = 17),
schizophrenia (N = 13), mood disorders (N = 13), and anxiety disorders (N =
14)--and one normal group of college students (N = 63). Hypnotizability was
assessed by four different measures: the eye roll sign and the induction
score of the Hypnotic Induction Profile, the Stanford Hypnotic
Susceptibility Scale, Form C, and two self-ratings of hypnotizability.
RESULTS: As predicted, dissociative disorder patients had significantly
higher hypnotizability scores on all measures than all other groups.
Schizophrenic patients, on the other hand, had significantly lower scores
than normal subjects on the eye roll sign and induction score but not on
the other measures of hypnotizability. Some other unpredicted between-group
differences were also found. Nevertheless, despite the between-group
differences, the intercorrelations between the various hypnotizability
measures within the normal group were very similar to those observed in the
combined patient groups. CONCLUSIONS: The findings suggest that routine
hypnotizability assessment may be useful in the differential diagnosis of
patients with dissociative disorders.
