CEREBRAL BLOOD-FLOW CHANGES IN PATIENTS WITH CONVERSION DISORDER

We evaluated regional cerebral blood how in five patients with convers ion disorder (three females, two males, mean age +/- S.D.: 29.8 +/- 9. 5 years) with astasia-abasia. The patients underwent single photon emi ssion computed tomography after the injection of 555 MBq of [Tc-99m]he xamethylpropyleneamine oxime. Uptake ratios between areas of decreased perfusion and normal brain regions were considered significantly decr eased when there was a change greater than or equal to 10%. Four of th e five patients had left temporal and one patient had left parietal pe rfusion decreases. Uptake ratios ranged from 0.72 to 0.88 (mean +/- S. D.: 0.81 +/- 0.08). Our findings suggest that alterations in regional brain perfusion may accompany conversion symptoms. Functional imaging may therefore offer a means of elucidating the neural correlates of co nversion disorder. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights r eserved.