Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to B M Dopler.
We describe a patient originally diagnosed with clinically definite multiple sclerosis whose actual diagnosis of conversion disorder was revealed when his examination was found to be fictitious, his radiological, electrophysiological, and biochemical tests were determined to be normal, and his symptoms were reversed through the use of sodium pentothal and hypnosis.
The cases presented here were patients referred for neurologic disability evaluations. They met the three selection criteria presented and underwent the four-phase pentothal hypnosis procedure described and at the conclusion were diagnosed as having psychiatric morbidity. We recommend that the sodium pentothal hypnosis procedure be considered for use whenever there is concern for psychiatric co-morbidity in a patient with presumed physiologic disease.