Am J Psychiatry 1982; 139:1140-1144
Copyright © 1982 by American Psychiatric Association
A current perspective of pseudocyesis
LM Cohen
Pseudocyesis is a diagnosis out of medical antiquity in with the
physiological and psychological concomitants of pregnancy develop in the
absence of the true gravid state. Along with other dramatic and
polymorphous psychiatric disorders pseudocyesis appears to have decreased
in frequency or altered its clinical manifestation in this century. The
author discusses the reasons behind these changes and describes a
comparable modern neuroendocrine diagnosis, the galactorrhea-amenorrhea
hyperprolactinemia syndrome. He advocates the combined use of the term
pseudocyesis for a selected population of patients.
