Conversion disorder: A systematic review of current terminology

Abstract

Objective It has been argued that the label given to unexplained neurological symptoms is an important contributor to their often poor acceptance, and there has been recent debate on proposals to change the name from conversion disorder. There have been multiple studies of layperson and clinician preference and this article aimed to review these. Design Multiple databases were searched using terms including “conversion disorder” and “terminology”, and relative preferences for the terms extracted. Results Seven articles were found which looked at clinician or layperson preferences for terminology for unexplained neurological symptoms. Most neurologists favoured terms such as “functional” and ..