Preliminary study of relationships between hypnotic susceptibility and personality disorder functioning styles in healthy volunteers and personality disorder patients

Hypnotizability and Disordered Personality Styles in Cluster A Personality Disorders

AIM

Interpersonal sensitivity and mistrust are the main characteristics of cluster A personality disorders (CAPD) which might be due to the high accessibility to negative suggestions from environments. Yet the exact associations between hypnotic suggestibility and their personality disorder functioning styles remain unclear.

METHODS

We invited 36 patients with CAPD and 115 healthy volunteers to undergo the Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale: Form C (SHSS:C) and Parker Personality Measure (PERM).

RESULTS

Compared to controls; patients scored higher on PERM paranoid; schizoid; schizotypal; borderline; avoidant; and dependent styles; on the SHSS:C total and "challenge suggestions", and the passing rates of "hand lowering", "arm rigidity", "dream", and "arm immobilization". In patients, "dream" negatively predicted the schizoid; "hallucinated voice" negatively the schizotypal; "mosquito hallucination" positively the histrionic and dependent; and "arm immobilization" negatively the avoidant style.

CONCLUSIONS

Our results suggested that the insusceptibility to perceptual suggestions from others and the high control over body contribute to the paranoid attitude and interpersonal avoidance in CAPD. These findings help to understand the cause of interpersonal problems in these patients and suggest the trial of hypnotherapy for them.

Hypnotizability and psychopathology of patients with personality disorders

Assessment of hypnotizability is useful in research and predicting the effects of hypnosis in clinical practice. There are few contemporary scientific reports examining the relationship between hypnotizability and psychopathological personality dimensions. The current study explores the connections between abnormal personality in psychiatric patients and the hypnotizability level. Fifty-five patients with anxiety and personality disorders who previously completed the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2) were invited to undergo the Elkins Hypnotizability Scale - Clinical Form (EHS-CF). The hypnotizability scores comprise a normal distribution but shifted toward low scores. Twenty-seven patients were included in the low hypnotizability (LOW) group, and 28 patients in the medium to high (MID-HIGH) group. The number of participants with high scores on the Psychopathic Deviate and Paranoia MMPI-2 clinical scales was significantly higher in the LOW than in the MID-HIGH group. Patterns of associations between hypnotizability and psychopathology differed in the two groups. The results indicate that moderate hypnotizability should be considered a normal trait that has no meaningful relationship with psychopathology, but certain dysfunctional symptoms of personality disorders may entail resistance and a defensive attitude toward the hypnotherapy, resulting in a tendency to obtain lower hypnotizability.

Color preferences in participants with high or low hypnotic susceptibility

PURPOSE

Color preferences vary among normal individuals and psychiatric patients, and this might be related to their different levels of hypnotic susceptibility. We hypothesized that individuals with higher hypnotic susceptibility prefer more arousing colors such as red.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

Out of 440 participants, we selected 70 with higher (HIGH) and 66 with lower (LOW) hypnotic susceptibilities, and asked them to undergo the Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale: Form C (SHSSC) test, then to order their preferences of 11 colors.

RESULTS

The HIGH group preferred red more and scored higher on the total SHSSC. The preference order of black was negatively predicted by the SHSSC Taste hallucination but positively by Arm rigidity, and the preference of yellow was positively predicted by Posthypnotic amnesia and Taste hallucination in the HIGH group.

CONCLUSION

The red preference and the SHSSC associations with black and yellow preferences in participants with high hypnotic susceptibility help to clarify the individual difference of color preference and provide research hints for behavioral studies in normal individuals and psychiatric patients.

Relationship between hypnosis and personality trait in participants with high or low hypnotic susceptibility

BACKGROUND

The relationship between normal personality and hypnotic susceptibility is important for understanding mental processing and mental disorders, but it is less consistent in normal people or in patients with a psychiatric disorder. We have hypothesized that the correlation exists but varies in individuals with different levels of hypnotizability.

PARTICIPANTS AND METHODS

We invited 72 individuals with high (HIGH group) and 47 individuals with low (LOW group) hypnotic susceptibilities to undertake tests of NEO-PI-R and the Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale, Form C (SHSSC).

RESULTS

The HIGH group scored significantly higher than the LOW group did on openness to experience and its facet openness to feelings. In the LOW group, SHSSC total was positively predicted by openness to ideas; age regression was positively predicted by openness to experience and negatively predicted by extraversion; anosmia to ammonia was negatively predicted by agreeableness; and negative visual hallucination was positively predicted by openness to experience. In the HIGH group, hallucinated voice was positively predicted by openness to experience and negatively predicted by agreeableness, and posthypnotic amnesia was positively predicted by extraversion and negatively predicted by openness to experience.

CONCLUSION

The associations between normal personality traits and hypnotic susceptibility items were weak and different in the two groups, which imply that managing mental or somatoform disorders might be through adjusting hypnotizability and mobilizing personality functions.