Conversion disorder

Hi, I'm not real sure where to get started and this thread seemed like a likely place to begin. I am interested in conversion disorder, and it's relationship to anxiety et al. I'll be brief. I've a patient with a chronic pain problem, RSD, pain in the ball of her foot. After MMPI-2 and other diagnostics revealed the strong "possibility" of a conversion hysteria problem, I began to look at this more closely. Problem: while she has a strong background for conversion, the literature and DSM seem to exclude pain problems from conversion possibilities. Yet, when she said about her husband (disabled for 24 years), "I've carried him for twenty four years, I'm tired, now it's my turn," AND when she received a morphine pump, AND when seen in the hospital totally snowed on pain meds, enough to put down an elephant she said that the pain in her foot was unchanged, we began to seriously consider the conversion possibility more seriously. Indeed, now off all the meds and only on amitriptyline and Ativan she does seem to be improving, albeit the pain continues unchanged. She even acknowledges there may be a connection between her pain "symptoms" and her emotional status.

Any thoughts?

JON

• Conversion dynamics and metaphor by Mark Waugh, PhD, 4/20/97
• Re: Conversion Disorder by Barbara Fleming, Ph.D., 4/27/97
• conversion disorder by mcent62942@aol.com, 9/8/98
• conversion lady by stress precede the symptoms, 9/18/98
• Conversion disorder by M. Farouk Okhai, 10/13/98