Hypnotizability in bulimic patients and controls. A pilot study.

Various studies have indicated that bulimics are more easily hypnotized and dissociate more readily than control groups and patients with other eating disorders. A comparison is reported of 15 inpatients with bulimia nervosa (DSM III-R) with 15 subjects in a control group comparable in age and education. The instrument used was the Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility/Form A (HSGHS:A), which includes 12 standardized test suggestions. The results show that bulimics have higher scores in hypnotizability than the control group. A method study (comparison of self-evaluation with a video recording) shows that this is a result of the behaviour itself and not of the answering pattern used by the subjects in the questionnaire. It is possible that differing expectations regarding the experiment may have influenced the results. Considerations concerning the increased ability of bulimics to dissociate as a causal factor versus an accompanying phenomenon of the disorder are discussed.