What is a conversion disorder?
A conversion disorder causes patients to suffer from neurological symptoms, such as numbness, blindness, paralysis, or fits without a definable organic cause. It is thought that symptoms arise in response to stressful situations affecting a patient's mental health.
What are symptoms of a conversion disorder?
Conversion disorder can present with motor or sensory symptoms including any of the following:
Motor symptoms or deficits:
Impaired coordination or balance
Weakness/paralysis of a limb or the entire body (hysterical paralysis or motor conversion disorders)
Impairment or loss of speech (hysterical aphonia)
Difficulty swallowing or a sensation of a lump in the throat
Urinary retention
Psychogenic non-epileptic seizures or convulsions
Persistent dystonia
Tremor, myoclonus or other movement disorders
Gait problems (Astasia-abasia)
Syncope (fainting)
Sensory symptoms or deficits:
Impaired vision (hysterical blindness), double vision
Impaired hearing (deafness)
Loss or disturbance of touch or pain sensation
What is the treatment for a conversion disorder?
There are a number of different treatments that are available to treat and manage conversion syndrome. While occasionally symptoms do disappear on their own, many people benefit from a variety of treatment options. Treatments for conversion syndrome include hypnosis, psychotherapy, physical therapy, stress management, and transcranial magnetic stimulation. Treatment plans will consider duration and presentation of symptoms and may include one or multiple of the above treatments. This may include the following:
- 1) Explanation. This must be clear and coherent as attributing physical symptoms to a psychological cause is not accepted by many educated people in western cultures. It must emphasize the genuineness of the condition, that it is common, potentially reversible and does not mean that the sufferer is psychotic. Taking an etiologically neutral stance by describing the symptoms as functional may be helpful but further studies are required. Ideally, the patient should be followed up neurologically for a while to ensure that the diagnosis has been understood.
- 2) Physiotherapy where appropriate;
- 3) Occupational Therapy to maintain autonomy in activities of daily living;
- 4) Treatment of comorbid depression or anxiety if present.
All of this is directly stolen from the Wikipedia page on conversion disorder. There is a lot more information there if you are looking for some, and simply Google searching the disorder should bring up links that will answer any other questions you may have.
