Supernatural-Functiolistic-Expialidocious: A Comparative Study Between Functional Neurological Symptom...

Background Functional neurological symptom disorder (FNSD) is a condition that affects the nervous system, disrupting how the brain and body communicate, leading to difficulties in movement and sensory perception. Our objective was to identify the stressors leading to a conversion disorder diagnosis, the frequency of medical and non-medical contacts, the type and average number of symptoms reported, and the local belief system surrounding the illness. Methods We collected data from 300 patients at the outpatient psychiatry clinic of North West General Hospital & Research Center, a tertiary care hospital in Peshawar, which serves both local residents and Afghan immigrants. The ethics committee of North West General Hospital and Research Centre approved all procedures involving patients or human subjects. Demographics and the required details were collected using predetermined tables. Group A included patients with a diagnosis of conversion disorder and group B included all other psychiatric illnesses. Comparative analysis was done using SPSS (IBM Inc., Armonk, New York) to analyze all collected data. Results Of the overall patients in group A, 69.33% believed in a spiritual cause, with or without a physical/psychiatric cause, for their complaints. 30.6% believed their complaints to be wholly physical or psychiatric in nature, with a female:male ratio (F:M) of 22.5:63.3%. A combination of spiritual and physical/psychiatric causes for the presenting complaints, were believed by 42.6% of the group, with F:M of 47.5:23.3%. The highest number of individual symptoms on average were reported in the group with marital problems at 6.7, followed by other form of stressors. Females, those residing in rural areas and were uneducated showed a greater number of symptoms. Females presented with overall more symptoms on average with a F:M of 2.5:2.2. Males who resided in rural areas presented with more symptoms on average, compared to those living in urban settings. Conclusions Our research showed that FNSD was more prevalent in young people, females, the uneducated and the ones living in rural areas. Females presented with more physical symptoms compared to males. Comparison with a control group of 150 other psychiatric patients, showed similar physical symptoms, but lesser in number compared to the FNSD group, they however had other similarities such as increase incidence in females, the uneducated and the ones from rural areas. The control group however showed more previous contact with physicians and psychiatrists compared to the FNSD group.