Conversion Disorder in Australian Pediatric Practice

Conversion Disorder, Functional Neurological Symptom Disorder, and Chronic Pain: Comorbidity, Assessment, and Treatment

“…For example, Kozlowska et al [7] found that symptoms of chronic pain and chronic fatigue were reported to present in 56 and 34%, respectively, of children diagnosed with conversion disorder. Additionally, chronic pain syndromes have been reported in patients with psychogenic nonepileptic seizures [7,8]. In fact, patients with psychogenic nonepileptic seizures have been found to experience a more severe form of migraine that is more frequent and longer in duration than patients with epilepsy [9].…”

Self-protective organization in children with conversion and somatoform disorders

“…Of these last four, two reported no other neurological symptoms and two suffered from intermittent conversion symptoms [globus hystericus and transient episodes of gait disturbance and unresponsiveness (nonepileptic seizures)] that, on their own, did not cause significant enough impairment of function to meet DSM-IV-TR criteria for conversion disorder. Although DSM-IV-TR differentiates conversion disorder from somatoform pain disorder, clinical studies suggest this nosological division to be artificial, with medically unexplained pain being more usefully viewed as a subtype of sensory conversion symptom [24][25][26].…”

Diagnostic value of Hoover sign and motor-evoked potentials in acute somatoform unilateral weakness and sensory impairment mimicking vascular stroke

“…Somatoform disorder may present with unexplained deafness, blindness, hemiplegia or paraplegia, anesthesia, seizures, aphonia, ataxia, vomiting or diarrhea. [18][19][20] Acute somatoform unilateral weakness simulating a vascular stroke is rare in adults, and we found a total of 31 reported patients. 3-10 Marshall et al 3 in 1997 were the first to have examined the regional cerebral blood flow of a woman with a somatoform disorder, which manifested as complete left-sided paralysis for 2.5 years.…”