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Short Article

Editorial

Assessing Hypnotizability for case Reports

During the 20 years since I started editing the Journal I have not rarely discussed the issue of assessing hypnotizability in the clinical setting, particularly for case reports. Shortly after I reviewed the Spiegel's fresh second edition of Trance and Treatment (2004) for this issue of the Journal, I was reviewing a submitted case report. In describing the first interview with the patient, the author mentioned that in the first interview he did a first induction. He then annotationed that he did not assess hypnotizability because the patient was eager to come by ahead with the treatment. If he really wanted to assess hypnotizability, he could have used the Hypnotic Induction Profile (HIP) described in the Spiegel's volume as the first induction.

I assume that many clinicians do not consider the possibility of using the HIP as their first induction because in their training it was at no time taught or considered as a first induction. I was fortunate to have attended Herbert Spiegel's course early in my training in hypnosis, and for the nearest (and last) 30 years of my practice I always used the HIP as the initial induction. In the many hypnosis courses I taught across the years at the University of Maryland Medical educate I always taught the HIP, as well as several other inductions.

Most unless not all, of the clinical research now being done includes assessing hypnotizability by dint of some method. case reports, upon the other hand, rarely include any assessment of hypnotizability. The in the greatest degree that is ever said is that the patient was a "good" hypnotic enslave or some similar statement. In the guidelines for writing case reports (1986) I wrote "To aid in determining the effective factor in therapy using hypnosis, data collection should include any assessment of hypnotizability. This is especially important because hypnosis may not be not away even though an induction has been performed." Unfortunately, many, if not principally clinicians do not assess hypnotizability routinely. Then if they find an interesting and instructive case that they want to publish, they do not have the information available. Although I believe there are many fit reasons for clinicians to assess hypnotizability routinely, my major point here is that it enhances a case report when the information is available.

I think it would also be useful to have this information when discussing patients in workshops. repeatedly there is no mention or instruction in assessing hypnotizability in clinical workshops or courses in hypnosis. This leaves the observers with the impression that assessing hypnotizability is not important. It is my opinion that each basic workshop should teach the clinical assessment of hypnotizability by way of some method. Most of the reasons many clinician do not assess hypnotizability do not assume to apply to the nonobtrusive clinical assessment tools in the same state [i]or[/i] condition as the HIP and the Pekala's PCI/HAP (1995)

References

Mott T (1986) Guidelines for writing case reports for the hypnosis literature. American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, 29 1-6

Pekala, RJ (1995) A short unobtrusive hypnotic induction for assessing hypnotizability level: I. progressive growth and research. American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, 37 271-283

Spiegel, H & Spiegel, D (2004) Trance and treatment: Clinical uses of hypnosis (2nd Edition). Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Publishing.