COURSE AND OUTCOME OF CONVERSION AND SOMATIZATION DISORDERS - A 4-YEAR FOLLOW-UP

Although the two disease concepts have very different histories, many previous studies have mixed conversion disorder and somatization disor der and none has made direct comparison between them. The authors appl ied DSM-III criteria to inpatient and outpatient medical records and a ttempted to follow 98 patients who met criteria for somatization disor der or conversion disorder. Five of these patients died 4 years later and, of those who survived, 70 (75.3%) Were given follow-up intel view s by a rater blind to baseline diagnosis. The 32 patients with a basel ine diagnosis of conversion disorder were significantly less likely th an the 38 patients with somatization disorder to be given the same dia gnosis at follow-up. Six of the conversion disorder patients were give n follow-up diagnoses of somatization disorder and, in four other case s, subsequent developments revealed medical explanations for the prese nting complaint. Of the two baseline diagnoses, somatization disorder predicted substantially more impairment in a variety of domains.