Clinical aspects of hysteria

This is a clinical study of 80 patients, diagnosed as suffering from hysteria, who attended the psychiatric clinic in Khartoum Hospital over a period of 3 years. The incidence of hysteria was 10%, the female-male ratio 15:1, and young age-groups predominate. 60% were essentially of normal personality. The clinical picture was fairly consistent. Hysterical conversion was the commonest clinical form (76%) and the dissociative type was rare. The patients with recurrent and vague bodily complaints could be labeled as histrionic.