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CASE REPORT article

Front. Psychiatry
Sec. Adolescent and Young Adult Psychiatry
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1359510
This article is part of the Research Topic Case Reports in Adolescent and Young Adult Psychiatry View all 4 articles

A case report of dissociative neurological symptom disorder with gait disturbance: Taking after the father?

Provisionally accepted
  • Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Dongcheng, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Dissociative neurological symptoms disorder (DNSD), or conversion disorder, frequently manifests with unexplained neurological symptoms, necessitating referral to psychiatry following preliminary diagnosis in neurology. We present a case of an adolescent female patient with gait disturbance as the predominant clinical presentation, and delve into the diagnosis and interdisciplinary intervention process. Given neuroimaging deviations detected and familial similar presentations, the organic etiology was confirmed. However, the aberrant gait remained unexplained ultimately prompting psychiatric consultation resulting in the diagnosis of DNSD. Interventions consisting of health education, suggestive therapy, and physiotherapy notably improved gait disturbance. However, at follow-up, the patient presented with a depressive episode. It was deduced that undiagnosed psychosocial factors, notably familial dynamics, likely contributed to this decline. Eventually, transformed relation patterns among family members as well as antidepressant treatment were instrumental in attaining symptom remission.

    Keywords: Dissociative neurological symptom disorder, Conversion Disorder, Functional neurological disorder, Gait, Referral and Consultation, Suggestion therapy

    Received: 21 Dec 2023; Accepted: 10 May 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Geng, Jiang and Wei. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Yinan Jiang, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Dongcheng, China
    Jing Wei, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Dongcheng, China

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