conversion disorder
in DSM–IV–TR, a somatoform disorder in which patients present with one or more symptoms or deficits affecting voluntary motor and sensory functioning that suggest a physical disorder but for which there is instead evidence of psychological involvement. These conversion symptoms are not intentionally produced or feigned and are not under voluntary control. Symptoms can include paralysis, loss of voice, blindness, seizures, globus pharyngeus, disturbance in coordination and balance, and loss of pain and touch sensations (see motor conversion symptoms; sensory conversion symptoms). The formal criteria for the disorder in DSM–5, which refers to it also as functional neurological symptom disorder, primarily emphasize that there must be clear clinical evidence of symptom incompatibility with recognized neurological pathology before a diagnosis can be made. That there may also be
psychological involvement in the onset of symptoms, or that stress or trauma of any sort, either psychological or physical, may have etiological relevance, is recognized in DSM–5 as among “associated features” that, if found, support diagnosis. The absence of feigning, however, is no longer a required criterion for diagnosis due to the clinical challenge of reliably discerning its absence.