Anxiety in hysteria: an Egyptian clinical study

ABSTRACT

Conversion symptoms are traditionally thought to protect or defend the sufferer from anxiety. However, in this study, which was carried out in Zagazig, the capital of Sharkeyah Governorate, Egypt, 50 patents with hysterical neurosis were subjected to a detailed clinical study and assessed by the 'Anxiety and Depression Scale' [Shaheen and Rakhawy, 1970] before and one year after treatment of hysterical symptoms, and results showed that patients were experiencing anxiety, which was significantly more marked in these who would develop a sustained rather than episode hysteria. Thus, detection of severe anxiety in a case of hysteria is suggested to be of predictive importance. The suggestion to classify this series of patients with hysterical neurosis into two types, 'sustained' and 'episodic' derives a support from the statistical analysis which demonstrates a significant difference between 'sustained hysteria' group on a number of demographic and other variables. The level of anxiety and inadjustment in general, as assessed by the 'Anxiety and Depression Scale' was not improved by attempts to remove the hysterical symptoms. This suggests that, such management of hysteria seems not to "cure the disease" as advocated by other workers but to uncover the patient's anxiety