Preliminary study of relationships between hypnotic susceptibility and personality disorder functioning styles in healthy volunteers and personality disorder patients
2011

Hypnotic Susceptibility and Personality Disorders

Sample size: 231 publication Evidence: moderate

Author Information

Author(s): Wang Fenghua, Chen Wanzhen, Huang Jingyi, Xu Peiwei, He Wei, Chai Hao, Zhu Junpeng, Yu Wenjun, Chen Li, Wang Wei

Primary Institution: Harbin Medical University

Hypothesis

Personality disorder patients would have higher hypnotic susceptibilities than normal controls, and personality disorder functioning styles would be correlated with hypnotic susceptibilities.

Conclusion

The study provides limited evidence that hypnotic susceptibility influences the functioning styles of personality disorders.

Supporting Evidence

  • Patients with personality disorders showed higher passing rates on SHSSC Dream and Posthypnotic Amnesia items.
  • No significant correlation was found in healthy volunteers.
  • In patients, SHSSC Taste hallucination and Anosmia to Ammonia were significantly correlated with the PERM Borderline style.
  • SHSSC Posthypnotic Amnesia was correlated with the PERM Schizoid style but negatively with the PERM Narcissistic style.

Takeaway

People with personality disorders might be more likely to experience hypnosis than those without, and their specific personality traits can affect how they respond to hypnosis.

Methodology

The study involved 77 personality disorder patients and 154 healthy volunteers who completed the Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale and the Parker Personality Measure.

Potential Biases

Participants may have had subconscious defenses against hypnosis, affecting results.

Limitations

The study used an unvalidated Chinese version of the SHSSC, did not categorize personality disorder patients into individual types, and had a narrow age range.

Participant Demographics

154 healthy volunteers (102 men, aged 20.74 years ± 1.43) and 77 personality disorder patients (51 men, aged 20.58 ± 1.24).

Statistical Information

P-Value

p<0.05

Confidence Interval

95% CI: -0.35 ~ 0.41

Statistical Significance

p<0.05

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

10.1186/1471-244X-11-121

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