How does a patient with hysteria present?
A. Hysteria may present as affliction of organ of special senses i.e. as hysterical deafness, hysterical blindness. It may also affect the voluntary nervous system and patient may present with hyperventilation, convulsions, paraesthesias etc. Q. A patient has come with inability to walk suddenly. How do I know whether the patient actually has a problem? A. There are two ways to diagnose a conversion disorders: – • Positive diagnosis whereby a temporal relationship between psychological stress and onset of symptoms is established. Associated features established are those of elicitable gain. The patient has dramatic symptoms without associated physical signs. • Negative diagnosis – The patient has multiple symptoms where the disability is out of proportion to any elicitable disorder. Conversion disorder is diagnosed as absence of any physical cause.
