Posted by vincent_QC on January 30, 2014, at 17:06:38
In reply to Re: Conversion Hysteria (or whatever they call it now) » vincent_QC, posted by phidippus on January 30, 2014, at 14:45:51
> Read about Conversion Disorder:
>
> http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2416752/
>
> ErioI guess it's Eric not Erio... lol
I did read that a long time ago. I must say that conversion hysteria was the name of give to somatization disorder before. Now it's call somatization disorder. In my case, the last PDoc I saw for an evaluation had difficulty to make the diagnostic of somatization because normally the physical symptoms begin before 30 years old... in my case I start having chronic physical symptoms only at 34 years old...
I like when they point out some clinical différences between conversion and other psychological illiness:
"According to DSM-IV, conversion symptoms must be of clinical significance to the patient, or of social or occupational consequence. While for some patients the benefits of the sick role may result in perceived significant gain (Ron 2001), the associated handicaps are often great (Vuilleumier et al 2001). Factitious disorder (the conscious production of symptoms in pursuit of medical attention) or malingering (the conscious production of symptoms and signs for financial or material gain) are distinct from conversion disorder. Stone et al (2002) suggest that physicians have a tendency to overdiagnose feigning of symptoms: in clinical practice the distinction between conversion and factitious disorders can only be considered definitive if corroborated by covert surveillance or confession.
An apparent lack of distress in the face of unpleasant symptoms or even disability la belle indifference is classically associated with conversion symptoms. This is held to be a useful diagnostic sign, but is not a common feature, and the majority of patients with conversion symptoms are in fact distressed by them (Stone et al 2002).
""I agree that it can be difficult for a PDoc to make the good diagnostic. It's so easy and common for any kind of Doctor to not find a cause to some symptoms and say that it's only in "your head" and that it's anxiety related, especially when you are diagnosticed with severe anxiety disorders...
The main problem here is that in case of somatisation disorder, the symptoms are real, the pain is real, some symptoms start after a traumatism like a major surgerie and the sick role to gain attention or even not have to work is not a feature of the somatisation disorder and I do know that anxiety disorders are most of the time the main culprit of the somatisation...Every single physical sensations become a source of worry...and new fears appear and the more fears and worries and the more anxiety you live...
I do know that the another form of that disorder exist and it's call somatoform disorder. It's different from the somatization disorder in some ways... A somatoform disorder is a mental disorder characterized by symptoms that suggest physical illness or injury or symptoms that cannot be explained fully by a general medical condition or by the direct effect of a substance, and are not attributable to another mental disorder (e.g., panic disorder). (It's from wikipedia..).
That's also how what my last PDoc who redo my evaluation and rule out my new diagnostic explain it to me. The main difference is that the symptoms are not caused by the anxiety...
In my case, i'm not faking my symptoms. Some of my chronic symptoms are related to some real diseases or surgeries I had who leave me very weak. The symptoms tend to be worse and worse over time. Nww physical symptoms appear once in a while and when they start to happen, they happen more and more and become chronic...
Of course, I saw a lot of doctors over the years... some of them did find abnormal things in my body who can explain some symptoms... some chronic symptoms can't be explain. In my case, anxiety came first and anxiety is the main problem... and I did had a oriif of that when in 2009 I was on the Paxil for the panic disorder and that I was free of all my anxiety after 1 1/2 month on the Paxil... I had no worry and I was mostly free of physical symptoms like the headache... or jaw pain and I wasnt worried about my heart at all... but I had to stop taking it for a personnal problem that I will not write here... and the anxiety return first and then the physical chronic symptoms start after that...
Overall, I think it's not our job to diagnosticed or judge a patient mental health. We are here to help each other and saying that the guy in the Wheel chair is faking is symptoms to have more attention and because he don't want to work is not our buisness!!!
When different kind of therapy and meds fails to help, it's a very hard mental disease to treat and get Under control.
I will give anything I have to be normal again, to live only 1 day without all that pain and all those symptoms and also all that creppy anxiety, those irrational phobias and that high level of apprehensions!!!
Vincent
poster:vincent_QC
thread:1058380
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20140123/msgs/1059981.html