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Healthinmind/Mental
Health Disorders/Somatoform Disorders
Conversion
Disorder
Conversion
Disorder (CD) typically involves only a single dramatic symptom that
arises immediately or soon after a major traumatic event. CD was called
"hysteria" in earlier times, and was thought to occur almost
exclusively in women. The word "hysteria," which was derived
from the Greek word for wandering uterus, reflected this feminine
connection. The disorder is diagnosed less frequently in our more
sophisticated era. Freud based his initial version of psychoanalysis on a
case of hysteria, that of "Anna O.," who developed a series of
conversion symptoms connected with the death of her father.
The idea behind the name
"CD" is that a psychological problem is converted into a
physical symptom. Some symptoms include blindness or partial blindness,
deafness, paralysis, and numbness. Before CD is diagnosed, a careful
physical examination is needed. The evidence that a significant
psychological stressor brought on the disorder should be strong. In some
cases the symptom is inconsistent with a physical explanation; the
classical case is that of "glove anesthesia," wherein the
pattern of numbness is inconsistent with the distribution of nerves.
Males and females are about equally
likely to be diagnosed with CD. The stresses of war produce some of the
cases in males. In many cases of CD some benefits flow from the symptom;
for example, a soldier cannot fire a gun if his dominant hand is
paralyzed. Most cases of CD resolve themselves in a period of weeks to
months. If they do not, the patient should be reevaluated very carefully
to be certain that a physical cause, after all, did not bring about the
problem. However, the usual therapy is support and reassurance while
waiting for spontaneous remission.
You will access an informative article on conversion disorder if you click
here.
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