title: Conversion disorder in children and adolescents: a disorder of cognitive control.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess cognitive function in children and adolescents presenting with acute conversion symptoms.
  
  
  METHODS
  Fifty-seven participants aged 8.5-18 years (41 girls and 16 boys) with conversion symptoms and 57 age- and gender-matched healthy controls completed the IntegNeuro neurocognitive battery, an estimate of intelligence, and self-report measures of subjective emotional distress.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Participants with conversion symptoms showed poorer performance within attention, executive function, and memory domains. Poorer performance was reflected in more errors on specific tests: Switching of Attention (t(79) = 2.17, p = .03); Verbal Interference (t(72) = 2.64, p = .01); Go/No-Go (t(73) = 2.20, p = .03); Memory Recall and Verbal Learning (interference errors for memory recall; t(61) = 3.13, p < .01); and short-delay recall (t(75) = 2.05, p < .01) and long-delay recall (t(62) = 2.24, p = .03). Poorer performance was also reflected in a reduced span of working memory on the Digit Span Test for both forward recall span (t(103) = -3.64, p < .001) and backward recall span (t(100) = -3.22, p < .01). There was no difference between participants and controls on IQ estimate (t(94) = -589, p = .56), and there was no correlation between cognitive function and perceived distress.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Children and adolescents with acute conversion symptoms have a reduced capacity to manipulate and retain information, to block interfering information, and to inhibit responses, all of which are required for effective attention, executive function, and memory.
authors.affiliation: Psychological Medicine, The Children's Hospital at Westmead, New South Wales, Australia; Disciplines of Psychiatry and of Paediatrics and Child Health, University of Sydney Medical School, New South Wales, Australia; Brain Dynamics Centre at Westmead Hospital and Westmead Millennium Institute, Westmead, New South Wales, Australia.
authors.forename: Kasia
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kozlowska
authors.forename: Donna M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Palmer
authors.forename: Kerri J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Brown
authors.forename: Stephen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Scher
authors.forename: Catherine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Chudleigh
authors.forename: Fiona
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Davies
authors.forename: Leanne M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Williams
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001288:Attention; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology*; D003291:Conversion Disorder / Q000150:complications*; D056344:Executive Function / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013223:Statistics as Topic
keywords: attention; conversion disorders; dissociative disorder; dynamic-maturational model; executive function and control; memory; neurocognitive tests