The authors compared the hypnotizability of 65 Vietnam veteran patients with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) to that of a normal control group and four patient samples using the Hypnotic Induction Profile. The patients with PTSD had significantly higher hypnotizability scores than patients with diagnoses of schizophrenia (N = 23); major depression, bipolar disorder--depressed, and dysthymic disorder (N = 56); and generalized anxiety disorder (N = 18) and the control sample (N = 83). This finding supports the hypothesis that dissociative phenomena are mobilized as defenses both during and after traumatic experiences. The literature suggests that spontaneous dissociation, imagery, and hypnotizability are important components of PTSD symptoms.

Group therapy has been identified effective for the treatment of PTSD. The importance of creating a safe, supportive, and competent therapeutic arena is discussed. The assurance of physical and emotional safety, confidentiality, and "honesty" are identified as important factors in this process.Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is the new name for an old condition. It is a mental disorder which is a consequence of psychological and perhaps neuro-psychological responses to trauma which, while perhaps facilitating immediate survival, have gone on to generate long-term suffering. It appears that each generation has had to re-discover PTSD as if it had never been known before. This lapse in the continuity of memory attests to the power of the mind to insulate itself from awareness of psychic injury. The current generation discovered PTSD after the Vietnam War.War is a prodigious source of the horrific events we associate with PTSD and military medical authorities have long appreciated the need to identify and respond to acute episodes of "shell shock" and "combat fatigue" (Jones & Hales, 1987). This appreciation reflects medical as well as military

No abstract