Skip to content
Research Article Open access CC BY 3.0

Gait Disturbance as Conversion Reaction Accompanying Anorexia Nervosa in a Young Adult: A Case Report and Literature Review

Ece Balkuv, Recep Basaran, Mecit Caliskan

Journal of Scientific Research and Reports · pp. 583–591 · Published 20 Dec 2013

10.9734/JSRR/2014/6783

Abstract

Aim: Conversion disorder is a situation where psychological stress is expressed physically. This health problem is usually triggered by a stressful or a mental crisis. When involving a physical problem it is named as ’conversion disorder’. Psychogenic gait disturbance is a common conversion disorder. Anorexia nervosa is a totally different disease than conversion disorder by its clinical presentation and characteristics. We present a patient suffering from anorexia nervosa and developing conversion disorder in form of a gait disturbance. Presentation of Case: A 35 year-old woman was suffering from excessive obsessions about her body. She had avoidance of eating and loss of 18 kilograms. She was admitted to our hospital for obtaining a disabled certificate for her walking disability that continued for 6 months. Her gait disturbance was indeterminate as to being neurological or orthopedic and was aggravated by stress. Discussion: Even though anorexia nervosa and conversion disorder are two different pathologies, they may be seen together, meaning that patients with one disease may develop symptoms of another disease as means of secondary gain. However, a psychogenic movement disorder is a rare presentation in this situation. Conclusion: Psychogenic gait disturbances are relatively rare psychogenic movement disorders. Conversion disorder may be the underlying problem. In our case, patient was masking, involuntarily, her primary problem (anorexia nervosa) by attracting attention to her gait. Such situations complicate the diagnosis and treatment of both diseases, which should be kept in mind.

Psychogenic gait conversion disorder anorexia nervosa movement

References (30)

  1. 1 The Outcome of Anorexia Nervosa in the 20th Century [DOI]
  2. 2 Eating Disorders: Obesity, Anorexia Nervosa, And The Person Within
  3. 3 50-year trends in the incidence of anorexia nervosa in Rochester, Minn.: a population-based study [DOI]
  4. 4 Psychogenic movement disorders [DOI]
  5. 5 A randomised controlled treatment trial of two forms of family therapy in adolescent anorexia nervosa: a five‐year follow‐up [DOI]
  6. 6 Childhood Abuse in Patients With Conversion Disorder [DOI]
  7. 7 Psychogenic Movement Disorders [DOI]
  8. 8 How to identify psychogenic disorders of stance and gait [DOI]
  9. 9 Clinical features of conversion disorder. [DOI]
  10. 10 HYSTERICAL NEUROSIS, CONVERSION TYPE: CLINICAL AND EPIDEMIOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS [DOI]
  11. 11 Psychogenic movement disorders in children: A report of 15 cases and a review of the literature [DOI]
  12. 12 Gait abnormalities in psychogenic movement disorders [DOI]
  13. 13 Hysterical gait disorders [DOI]
  14. 14 Functional weakness and sensory disturbance [DOI]
  15. 15 A video review of the diagnosis of psychogenic gait: Appendix and commentary [DOI]
  16. 16 The Developmental Origins of Conversion Disorders [DOI]
  17. 17 Psychogenic Movement Disorders [DOI]
  18. 18 Psychogenic movement disorders [DOI]
  19. 19 Progress in understanding conversion disorder [DOI]
  20. 20 Conversion disorders in Nottingham: alive, but not kicking [DOI]
  21. 21 [Foreign accent syndrome in a case of dissociative (conversion) disorder].
  22. 22 Psychogenic Gait Disorders [DOI]
  23. 23 Identifying patterns of psychogenic gait by video-recording [DOI]
  24. 24 Differential diagnosis of emotional disorders that cause weight loss.
  25. 25 The Clenched Fist Syndrome Revisited [DOI]
  26. 26 “Recumbent” gait: Relationship to the phenotype of “astasia‐abasia”? [DOI]
  27. 27 Two unusual gait disturbances: astasia abasia and camptocormia.
  28. 28 Conversion disorder presenting as gait disturbance in an adolescent [DOI]
  29. 29 The use of effective treatments: The case of an adolescent girl with anorexia nervosa in the context of a conversion disorder [DOI]
  30. 30 Barking Vocalizations and Shaking Movements in a 13-Year Old Girl [DOI]

Cited by 2

A psychotic experience during adolescence: reasoning about differential diagnosis. case report

Vítor Ferreira Leite, Carla Andrade Araújo · Sao Paulo Medical Journal · 2017

Showing 1 of 2 known citations — external sources report more than can currently be individually listed.

Related research

Article metrics

Real usage data collected on this platform.

39

Page views

0

PDF downloads

11

Outbound clicks

2

Citations

Views over time

Views by country

Approximate, from request IP at view time — not citizenship or institution. Countries with fewer than 5 views are grouped as "Other".

Traffic sources

Referring site, by host.

Views and downloads exclude known bots/crawlers. Citations combines this platform's own DOI-resolved index with each external source's own reported total — see Cited by above for individually listed citing works. Last refreshed 0 seconds ago.