Associated features of conversion disorder in Turkish adolescents

Conversion disorder in adolescents has not been studied extensively. A limited number of studies have focused on the features related to conversion disorder in adolescents. However, most of these studies used either retrospective data or did not have a control group that would allow comparison with the index cases.

Fifty-two Turkish adolescent patients diagnosed with conversion disorder were compared with a control group of 52 adolescents diagnosed with psychiatric disorders other than conversion disorder. The data were collected from the adolescent subjects and their mothers by various questionnaires, inventories, and psychiatric interviews.

In the present study, pseudoseizures were the most common subtype of conversion disorder, followed by motor symptoms or deficits. Coming from a rural area, having a broken family, long-term separation from parents, problems related to communication and expression of emotions in the family, higher anxiety scores, conversion disorder in the proximal environment, and conversion disorder or other psychiatric disorders in the mother were significantly associated with conversion disorder in adolescents.

The findings of the present study are in accordance with existing findings, and amplify the importance of problems in family functioning in the etiology of conversion disorder.