Depersonalization and derealization during panic and hypnosis in low and highly hypnotizable agoraphobics

The primary aim of the present study was to investigate the association between spontaneous experiences of depersonalization or derealization (D-D) during panic states and hypnosis in low and highly hypnotizable phobic individuals. Secondarily, the association among level of hypnotizability, capacity for imaginative involvement, and severity of phobic complaints was also assessed. Sixty-four patients with panic disorder with agoraphobia according to the DSM-III-R (American Psychiatric Association, 1987) criteria participated in the study. Proneness to experience D-D during hypnosis was positively related to hypnotizability, but only for agoraphobic patients who had already experienced these perceptual distortions during panic episodes. Correlations of level of hypnotizability and capacity for imaginative involvement with severity of agoraphobic complaints were not significant. These findings suggest that hypnotizability may be a mediating variable between two different, although phenotypically similar, perceptual distortions experienced during panic states and hypnosis. Implications for both theory and clinical practice are discussed.