ABSTRACT
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.
Subject(s)
Hospitalization , Hypnosis , Mental Disorders/psychology , Adolescent , Adult , Age Factors , Aged , Diagnosis, Differential , Female , Humans , Male , Mental Disorders/diagnosis , Middle Aged , Models, Psychological , Schizophrenia/diagnosis , Schizophrenic PsychologyABSTRACT
We studied the parameters of suggested posthypnotic amnesia (initial deficit in recall, reversibility, and temporal disorganization of the initial material partially recalled during amnesia) in 132 psychiatric inpatients with DSM-III diagnoses of schizophrenia (N = 25), eating disorders (N = 77), alcoholism (N = 12), and major affective disorder (depression) (N = 18). We compared the findings on these patients with normal student control groups on the Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale (SHSS:C) posthypnotic suggestion item. In general, the small patient subgroups showed posthypnotic amnesia on each of these criteria in similar fashion to normal student populations. Highly hypnotizable patients were more likely to recall their hypnotic experiences in a more random order than the temporally more accurate sequence shown by low-hypnotizable subjects. Schizophrenic patients initially recalled fewer of their hypnotic experiences (indicating some cognitive deficit), and eating disorder patients initially recalled more of their experiences than other patient groups or normal subjects. Nevertheless, all patient subgroups showed significant additional recall after the reversibility cue. The results support the robustness of posthypnotic amnesia in psychiatric patients.
Subject(s)
Amnesia/psychology , Hypnosis/methods , Mental Disorders/psychology , Suggestion , Adult , Alcoholism/psychology , Anorexia Nervosa/psychology , Bulimia/psychology , Depressive Disorder/psychology , Hospitals, Psychiatric , Humans , Schizophrenic Psychology , Substance-Related Disorders/psychologyABSTRACT
Hypnotizability was assessed with the use of three standardized hypnosis scales in 86 patients with eating disorders. All diagnoses were made according to DSM-III criteria. Sixty-five patients had anorexia nervosa and 21 had bulimia. The anorectic patients were divided into subgroups of 19 abstainers and 46 vomiters and purgers. Bulimic patients were highly hypnotizable, significantly more so than the patients with anorexia nervosa and age-matched populations. There was also a trend for the purging subgroup of anorectics to have higher hypnotic capacity than abstaining anorectics.
