Psychogenic fugue is a disorder of memory that occurs following emotional or psychological trauma and results in a loss of one's personal past including personal identity. This paper reports a case of psychogenic fugue in which the individual lost access not only to his autobiographical memories but also to his native German language. A series of experiments compared his performance on a variet...

BACKGROUND The emergence of psychogenic seizures after surgery for epilepsy is not well recognized. OBJECTIVES To identify the frequency of psychogenic seizures in an 11-year surgical experience and to characterize the patients with this complication. METHODS Ninety-six patients underwent surgery for epilepsy between 1985 and 1996. The surgical database was reviewed and all patients who exp...

BACKGROUND Patients with a psychogenic paresis have difficulties performing voluntary movements. Typically, diagnostic interventions are normal. We tested whether patients with a psychogenic lower limb paresis exhibit abnormal motor excitability during motor imagery or movement observation. METHODS Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) with single and paired pulses was used to explore motor...

Patient of "psychotic depression" who digested large quantity of water and subsequently developed grand mal seizure and serum sodium levels of less than 121 meq/litre is presented. The physiology of psychogenic polydypsia and related disorders is reviewed. The relation of this disorder to the use of phenothiazines and antidepressants is considered.

Patients with psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (pseudoseizures) have been diagnosed as having conversion disorder or dissociative disorder. Pseudoseizure patients frequently report a history of physical and sexual abuse, and traumatic experience is considered part of the mechanism for producing dissociation. Pseudoseizures may be a manifestation of dissociative disorder, especially when a his...

A 9-year-old boy presented with feeding and behavioural problems and was diagnosed with Autistic Spectrum Disorder and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. By age 11 he was becoming increasingly disinhibited and was refusing almost all oral food intake. Believing the cause to be psychogenic, he was placed in an inpatient eating disorder facility. After 3 days of continuous vomiting and min...

Spasmodic (spastic) dysphonia (SD) is considered by some to be a neurologic syndrome and by others a symptom complex of multiple etiologies, neurologic and psychogenic. A case of a 26-year-old female psychiatric nurse with psychogenic SD (PSD) is presented. The dysphonia was alleviated within one session of voice therapy. Psychogenic etiology was established by the author, based on three diagno...