Studies of Conversion Hysteria

Clinical characteristics of patients with motor disability due to conversion disorder: a prospective control group study

“…Our results could represent a minimum partly because of our severe inclusion criteria, and partly because we did not account for patients with mild disability who were not in need of admission to hospital or who may not even have been referred to us. Marsden29 and Lewis and Berman30 found that about 1% of all admissions to a neurological ward are made up of patients with conversion disorder which would be somewhat lower than in the present study if we adjust for conversion symptoms other than motor symptoms. A German study12 presented a figure as high as 9% and a Sudanese study 7.4%,28 but both of these studies also included patients with pain and probably reflect different referral patterns as well as differences in data acquisition and interpretation.…”

La belle indifférencein conversion symptoms and hysteria

“…In total, 11 studies met the inclusion criteria (Lewis & Berman, 1965; Raskin et al , 1966; Weinstein & Lyerly, 1966; Weinstein et al , 1969; Barnert, 1971; Dickes, 1974; Gould et al , 1986; Kapfhammer et al , 1992; Chabrol et al , 1995; Ebel & Lohmann, 1995; Sharma & Chaturvedi, 1995). Together these studies reported on a total of 356 patients with conversion symptoms and 157 patients with organic disease (see Table 1 and Fig.…”

Review of Consultation Psychiatry and Psychosomatic Medicine

“…70 Other consultants also confirm that they see "substantial numbers" of conversion reactions on the medical wards. He noted that in conversion symptoms we are dealing with functional physiological alterations, but that knowledge of how "psychogenic factors operate to cause physiologic change is not available yet."…”