Abstract
The electrodermal response to cognitive threat of unhypnotized female patients with somatic symptoms and high on both hypnotic ability and neuroticism (H-H) was found to be significantly higher (p<.01) than that of a matched group of female patients moderate on hypnotic ability and low on neuroticism (M-L). On verbal report the H-H and the M-L groups did not differ, but they were significantly different on a measure of self-deception (L scale) or repression. The above findings are consistent with predictions from the High Risk Model of Threat Perception (HRMTP), which states that people in the H-H group are both chronically and acutely more reactive to threat than the people in the M-L group. This finding may have important theoretical, clinical, and financial implications for the diagnosis, therapy, and prevention of somatization disorders seen in primary medical care.