Conversion Disorder and Spinal cord Injury: Case report

Introduction: The aetiology of conversion disorder is unknown, though association with emotional stress and with organic brain disorder has been described. Paraplegia as a conversion reaction has been reported infrequently. Combination of motor and sensory disturbance, other than paraplegia, may occur as a manifestation of a conversion reaction, and may suggest Spinal Cord Injury (SCI). Case Report: A 35-year-old Italian woman who had a history of post traumatic SCI which affected her lower limb when she was 29 years old. Patient was unable to empty his bladder completely.The aim of this paper is to describe the correlation between diagnosis of conversion disease and SCI. Clinical Rehabilitation Impact: Chronic conversion disorder can be resistant to rehabilitation treatment. Neurophysiological diagnostic procedures adopted in our study discern the degree of central and peripheral nervous system damage and confirmed the integrity of spinal cord in conversion disorder. Conclusion: Our case report describes the association between conversion disease, SCI, and neurophysiological tests and suggests to apply the neurophysiological tests to validate conversion disorder diagnosis in SCI.