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The British Journal of Psychiatry (1968) 114: 1121-1125. doi: 10.1192/bjp.114.514.1121
© 1968 The Royal College of Psychiatrists
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The Prevalence of Hysteria and Conversion Symptoms

JAMES FARLEY B.A.1, ROBERT A. WOODRUFF JR. M.D.2, and SAMUEL B. GUZE M.D.3

1 Third year medical student, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri, 63110
2 Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri, 63110
3 Professor of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri, 63110

One hundred post-partum women were interviewed systematically, using specified criteria for the diagnosis of hysteria. One woman met the full triad of diagnostic criteria defined by Perley and Guze, and was diagnosed as having hysteria. The general prevalence of hysteria as judged from this sample is between one and two per cent. This finding is consistent with previous studies of the prevalence of this disorder.

Unexplained neurological symptoms (conversion symptoms) were found in the histories of 33 of the sample of 100 women, indicating that such symptoms are reported frequently in a young female population which would generally be defined as "normal". We believe that conversion symptoms considered alone are of dubious diagnostic and prognostic value.

Sexual indifference was found among 47 of the 99 women who responded to our inquiry. This surprisingly high frequency of positive response to this question among this sample may be related to the fact of very recent delivery.

Submitted on September 28, 1967




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