Am J Psychiatry 1988; 145:1572-1575
Copyright © 1988 by American Psychiatric Association
The utility of electromyographic biofeedback in the treatment of conversion paralysis
DA Fishbain, M Goldberg, TM Khalil, SS Asfour, E Abdel-Moty, BR Meagher, R Santana, RS Rosomoff and HL Rosomoff
Department of Neurological Surgery, University of Miami School of Medicine, FL.
Conversion paralysis has a poor prognosis when there is evidence of
nonresponse to previous treatment, long duration, and secondary atrophy of
the "paralyzed" muscles. The authors present four such cases in which
conversion paralysis was treated successfully by means of electromyographic
(EMG) biofeedback. Each of the four patients also suffered from a chronic
pain condition. Results from statistical analyses indicated that the four
patients demonstrated significant improvement in the functional capacity of
the "paralyzed" muscles as measured by isometric maximum voluntary
contraction and EMG activity. The improvements occurred without explicit
psychotherapy and suggest that behavioral modification techniques alone may
be helpful in such cases.
