Am J Psychiatry 1979; 136:179-182
Copyright © 1979 by American Psychiatric Association
Personality, sexual adjustment, and brain lesions in patients with conversion symptoms
H Merskey and M Trimble
To clarify the interrelationships of conversion symptoms, hysterical
personality, sexual adjustment, and cerebral organic disorders the authors
studied 89 patients with classic motor conversion symptoms (group L) and
compared a subgroup of 24 of these patients (group H) with 24 matched
control patients (group C). They found hysterical personality in 19% of
group L, 21% of group H, and none of group C and passive-immature-dependent
personality in 19% of group L, 21% of group H, and none of group C.
Forty-eight percent of group L, 50% of group H, and 58% of group C had some
cerebral disorder. Patients with conversion symptoms who also had
hysterical and passive-immature-dependent personalities were especially
likely to have sexual abnormalities.
