This study was designed in order to examine the effects of different types of hypnotic suggestion on hypnotic analgesia. Generalised relaxation and focused analgesia were induced in seven high-hypnotisable (HH) and eight low-hypnotisable (LH) subjects. Subjects were not aware to which group they belonged. The two groups did not differ in their expectation rates to achieve analgesia under hypnosis. Pain intensity and unpleasantness were rated on VAS in response to painful electrical stimuli, delivered in random order in five ascending intensities. Both focused analgesia and generalised relaxation decreased pain intensity significantly. However, stimulus-intensity response curves differed under the two hypnotic conditions. As stimulus intensity became higher, pain reduction was enhanced under focused analgesia, while a constant reduction occurred under generalised relaxation. The interaction between hypnotic state and stimulus intensity was significant for focused analgesia but not for generalised relaxation; this difference became more pronounced when analysed for HH subjects only. Pain reduction was significantly higher in HH than in LH subjects under focused analgesia but not under generalised relaxation.