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ORIGINAL CONTRIBUTION |
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| Year : 2000 | Volume
: 54
| Issue : 9 | Page : 395-397 |
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Is hysteria still prevailing? A retrospective study of sociodemographic and clinical characteristics
A Jain, KK Verma, RK Solanki, A Sidana
Department of Psychiatry, SP Medical College, Bikaner 332004, India
Correspondence Address:
A Jain
C/o. Sh Nirmal Chand Jain, Balram Nagar, Behind Police Lines, Sikar-332 001
India
PMID: 11966064
How to cite this article:
Jain A, Verma K K, Solanki R K, Sidana A. Is hysteria still prevailing? A retrospective study of sociodemographic and clinical characteristics. Indian J Med Sci 2000;54:395-7 |
How to cite this URL:
Jain A, Verma K K, Solanki R K, Sidana A. Is hysteria still prevailing? A retrospective study of sociodemographic and clinical characteristics. Indian J Med Sci [serial online] 2000 [cited 2013 May 25];54:395-7. Available from: http://www.indianjmedsci.org/text.asp?2000/54/9/395/12043 |
The term hysteria has been used to describe a number of overlapping and poorly defined concepts, which has led to considerable confusion as to its meaning. [1] However, few studies in past have defined it as a distinct recognisable syndrome which is similar in its manifestation from patient to patient and can be recognised by means of usual clinical methods. [2] The illness constitutes about 6-15% of all OPD diagnosis. [3],[4],[5],[6] The onset usually occurs after 5 year of age [7] and the average age of onset is usually 10-15 years. [3],[4],[8] Females usually outnumber males [3],[4],[5],[9],[10] and majority of the patient are married with low educational status. [3],[4],[8] Although the symptom manifestation of the illness has wide variation among the patients, common presentation have been fainting fits, aphonia, breathlessness, pain, paralysis etc. [4],[5],[9]
A few studies in the recent past have suggested that hysteria has declined significantly, which may be due to the improvement in the social status of community, especially of its women folk. [11],[12]
Considering the large number of patients seeking help for the treatment of hysteria in psychiatry set up, present study was planned to assess the sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of the patients of hysteria and to see if it is really declining.
| ¤ Material and Method | |  |
Hospital records of all admitted patients in department of medicine and psychiatry of Prince Bijay Singh Memorial hospital, Bikaner which is affiliated to Sardar Patel Medical College were thoroughly screened retrospectively for the period July 96 to June 97. Out of all admitted patients only those who were diagnosed as hysteria by psychiatrists on their own or after seeing a referral from department of medicine were studied in detail. As far as possible, the possibility of an organic illness had been ruled out by a number of routine or specific investigations in almost all cases.
| ¤ Results | | |
During the year of study, 84 (1.01%) patients from department of medicine and 80 (5.9% patients from psychiatry were found to have diagnosis of hysteria. Disorder was significantly higher in female patients as compared to male (4.02% vs. 0.17%). Most (66%) of the female and all (100%) male patients were in age range of 11-30 years. Majority (63.4%) of the patients were urban dweller and married (79.8%). Though the illness was reported to have occurred in all educational groups, still the illiterate predomiminated over all others (43.9%).
Almost 50 percent of female and most (80%) of the male patients had faced some stress prior to the onset of illness. About one third (32.97%) of the patients had the past history of similar illness but only few had positive family history (2.4%). Fits of unconsciousness with jaw jocking and tonic-clonic movements of limbs was the commonest presenting symptom among female patients (44.6%), whereas, most of the male patients presented with loss of speech (aphonia). Majority (70.15%) of the patients were treated with combination of medicine and behaviour therapy. Duration of stay was two or three days in most (62.18%) of the cases and majority of them (82.92) were found to have been improved.
| ¤ Discussion | | |
Stengel's assertion that these conditions have become extinct today atleast in Western civilization; cannot be considered strictly accurate in face of clinical reports, [13] though few studies in recent past mentioned the declining trend. [11],[12] Reviewing the available Western and Indian literature. [2],[4],[5],[8],[9] it is clear that hysteria is not so uncommon as it was thought to be. Keeping in view of all its limitations, our study of only admitted hysterical patients reveals that hysteria is reported in 4.02 percent females and 0.17 percent male, making total of 1.71 percent which could have been mach higher provided the patients receiving treatment from OPD of medicine and psychiatry would have also been screened. Adding to this, it cannot be denied many of the patients of hysteria might have not been referred to the psychiatrist by physician. It may be concluded that hysteria is still prevailing in the local community with variety of symptom manifestations, being more common in younger age group, involving mainly illiterates, married and females and anticipated by stress in majority of the cases. All these findings are consistent with many other studies. [3],[5],[8],[9],[10] Hence it is worthwhile not to overlook the diagnosis of hysteria as the prognosis is favourable if timely treated. Further, it may be suggested that large prospective and follow-up studies are required to probe in depth about personality of these patients, their family and work environment, prognosis and recurrence of illness.
| ¤ Summary | | |
A retrospective study was con ducted in a psychiatric setup of S.P. Medical College, Bikaner (Raj.) to assess the the sociademographic and clinical characteristics of hysterical patients. The illness was more common in female patients. Most of the patients were young, married and illiterate. Nearly half of them had faced some stress prior to onset of their illness. Fits of unconsciousness and aphonia were the commonest presentation in female and male patients respectively. Duration of stay was 2-3 days and most of the patient responded well to different treatment modalities.
| ¤ References | | |
| 1. | Chodoff P. The diagnosis of hysteria. An overview. Am J Psych 1974:131:1073-1078.  |
| 2. | Perley MJ, Guze SB. Louis S, Missouri. Hysteria - The stability and usefulness of Clinical criteria : A Quantitative study based on a fellow up period of six to eight years in 39 patients. New Eng J Med 1962;256:421-427. |
| 3. | Bagadia VN, Shastri PC, Shah LP. A prospective study of demographic factors of 192 cases of hysteria. Ind J Psych 1973:15:179-185. |
| 4. | Vyas JN, Bharadwaj PK, Sharma KK. Aversion therapy in hysterical fits Ind J Psych 1977;19:27-30. |
| 5. | Hafeiz HB. Hysterical conversion A prognostic study. Br J Psych 198G;136:548-551. |
| 6. | Khapna BC, Wig NN, Varma VK. General Hospital Psychiatric Clinic: An epidemiological study. Ind J Psych 1974;16:211-220. |
| 7. | Goodyer I. Hysterical Conversion Reaction in childhood. J child Psychol Psych 1981;22:179-182. |
| 8. | Subramanim D, Subramaniam K, Devaki MN et al. A clinical study of 276 patients diagnosed as suffering from hysteria. Ind J Psych 1980; 22:83-68. |
| 9. | Trivedi JK, Singh H, Sinha PK. A Clinical Study of hysteria in children and adolescents. Ind J Psych 1980,22:63-68. |
| 10. | Somasundaram 0, Raghavan GV, Krishnan G. Hysteria in children and adolescents. Ind J Psych 1974; 16.274-278. |
| 11. | Nandi DN, Banerjee G, Nandi S, Nandi P. Is hysteria on the wane? A community survey in West Bengal. Br J Psych 1992;160:87-91. |
| 12. | Lazare A. Medical intelligence Current concpt in Psychiatry Conversion symptoms. New Fang J Med 1981;305:745-748. |
| 13. | John C. Dissociative disorders (Hysterical neurosis dissociative type) in comprehensive text book of Psychiatry, Edt. Kaplan and Sadock, 4th edition. Williams and Wilkins, Baltimore, 942-957. |
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