The Etiology of Hysterical Seizures

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Abstract
Four patients have been described who were believed to be suffering from hysterical attacks. The recent literature on hysterical seizures has been examined and the four new patients were added to two other reported series to provide a profile of 25 cases. Preceding or accompanying physical illness was a common finding, and 32 percent of subjects had a previous history of neurological disease. The existence of a substrate of CNS damage is supported by the finding of EEG abnormalities in 40 percent of patients. In other ways the cases resembled classical descriptions of subjects liable to hysterical illness. The operation of either dissociative or conversion mechanisms during the attacks was difficult to demonstrate, and suggestion was sometimes the only factor found to account for the form of the symptoms. Further studies to examine the nature of the relationship between brain damage and hysterical disorders appear justified.

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