Diagnosis and management of hysteria

Patients with the diagnosis of hysteria are a perennial management problem for the nonpsychiatric physician. Hysteria is an operationally defined clinical entity characterized by onset before age 30 and by multiple medically unexplainable symptoms. Such patients should be differentiated from those with psychiatric disorders resulting in somatization, especially conversion disorders, and should be managed in such a way as to minimize sick-role incapacitation and reduce injudicious use of medication, medical procedures, and hospitalization.