Conversion Disorder Research Paper

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Pages: 2

Conversion Disorder
Conversion disorder is a very rare mental illness. Conversion disorder is a somatoform disorder, or a psychological disorder in which the symptoms take a bodily form without apparent physical cause. The DSM-IV-TR defines conversion disorder as a mental disorder whose central feature is the appearance of symptoms affecting the patients senses or voluntary movements that suggest a neurological or general medical disease or condition. In simpler terms, conversion disorder is anxiety producing a loss of physical function.
Symptoms of conversion disorder are mainly loss of one or more bodily functions (blindness, paralysis, numbness, inability to speak), debilitating symptoms that occur suddenly, psychological problems that resolve after onset of physical symptoms, and lack of concern that usually occurs with severe symptoms. The longer list of symptoms includes weakness, paralysis of the arms or legs, loss of balance, seizures (sometimes with limited consciousness), episodes of unresponsiveness, difficulty swallowing, a feeling of a lump in the throat, shakes and tremors, difficulty walking, slurred speech or loss of speaking ability, difficulty hearing or loss of hearing, double vision, blurred vision,
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The Biopsychosocial influences for conversion disorder are very similar. Triggers include accumulation of life stressors and abuse/trauma. The main risk factors for this illness are family and sociocultural factors, cognitive impairment/communication difficulties, genetic/neurochemical/hormonal factors, presence of multiple chronic psychiatric conditions (other than trauma), PTSD, and dissociative disorders. Conversion disorders perpetuating factors include suppression of expression of distress, impaired emotional processing, iatrogenic factors, and minimization of psychological