Hysteria: a symptom or a syndrome

ABSTRACT

A descriptive follow up study of 100 consecutive cases of hysterical [dissociative/ conversion] disorders was conducted from 1995-1998 at CMH Kharian to describe find out the relative frequency of hysterical disorders and other underlying conditions in the patients presenting with hysterical symptoms and also to see the long term validity of this diagnosis. The findings of this work indicated that in 40% of the cases there was either a physical or psychiatric underlying cause of these symptoms i.e. depression [40%], anxiety state [15%], adjustment disorder [17.5%], personality disorder [5%] and medical illnesses [25%]. In 60% of the cases of hysterical disorder who responded to the follow up questionnaire, the diagnosis of hysterical disorder was sustained. The prevalence of hysterical disorder was more in women, among young, undereducated and lower socio-economic groups. In majority of the patients, a psychosocial stress was identified. Convulsions, sensory loss, visual symptoms, aphonia, headache, amnesia and possession state dominated the presenting complaints. Further sound methodological studies using the structured instruments are needed to replicate these findings: