title: Hysterical symptoms masking brain stem glioma.
abstract: To function effectively as primary care specialists, psychiatrists must remain ever alert to the possibility of organic disorders in patients who at first show only psychiatric symptoms. A case is presented in which hysterical overlay led to misdiagnosis in a 31 year woman, who dies of a diffuse medullary glioma 3 1/2 years after onset of "conversion" symptoms. The authors point out how the label "hysterical" clouds longitudinal objective diagnostic observations especially when initial clinical and laboratory data fail to support a definitive organic diagnosis.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001929:Brain Edema / Q000473:pathology; D001932:Brain Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology / Q000523:psychology; D001933:Brain Stem / Q000473:pathology; D003291:Conversion Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D003951:Diagnostic Errors; D005260:Female; D005909:Glioblastoma / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans