Abstract
Pregnant women with symptoms of nausea and vomiting were interviewed and tested for hypnotizability with the Stanford Hypnotic Clinical Scale. Those women (n = 17) with symptoms severe enough to require hospitalization were significantly more hypnotizable than those with mild symptoms (n = 13). We hypothesize that the hypnotizability may play a role in the genesis of severe hyperemesis in pregnancy. Hypnotherapy is a readily available, safe, non-pharmacologic treatment and is a useful adjunct to basic psychologic support given for nausea and vomiting of pregnancy.