Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2plfb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T21:26:09.889Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Functional visual loss: I. A true psuchiatric disorder?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

Roger G. Kathol ,
Terry A. Cox ,
James J. Corbett ,
H. Stanley Thompson  and
John Clancy
Roger G. Kathol*
Affiliation:
Departments of Internal Medicine, Neurology, Ophthalmology and Psychiatry, University of Iowa Hospitals, Iowa City, Iowa; and the Departments of Ophthalmology and Neurology, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, Nebraska, USA
Terry A. Cox
Affiliation:
Departments of Internal Medicine, Neurology, Ophthalmology and Psychiatry, University of Iowa Hospitals, Iowa City, Iowa; and the Departments of Ophthalmology and Neurology, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, Nebraska, USA
James J. Corbett
Affiliation:
Departments of Internal Medicine, Neurology, Ophthalmology and Psychiatry, University of Iowa Hospitals, Iowa City, Iowa; and the Departments of Ophthalmology and Neurology, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, Nebraska, USA
H. Stanley Thompson
Affiliation:
Departments of Internal Medicine, Neurology, Ophthalmology and Psychiatry, University of Iowa Hospitals, Iowa City, Iowa; and the Departments of Ophthalmology and Neurology, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, Nebraska, USA
John Clancy
Affiliation:
Departments of Internal Medicine, Neurology, Ophthalmology and Psychiatry, University of Iowa Hospitals, Iowa City, Iowa; and the Departments of Ophthalmology and Neurology, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, Nebraska, USA
*
1Address for correspondence Dr Roger G. Kathol, Department of Psychiatry, University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, 500 Newton Road, Iowa City, Iowa 52242, USA.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Synopsis

A review of the literature describing patients with functional visual loss reveals that a significant proportion of them do not manifest psychiatric disease as defined by current nomenclature. Apparently, these individuals are highly suggestible and do not necessarily have psychological pathology. The ramifications of this finding are discussed.

Type
Research Article
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 13 , Issue 2 , May 1983 , pp. 307 - 314
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1983

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Agatston, H. (1944). Ocular malingering. Archives of Ophthalmology 31, 223–231.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ames, T. H. (1914). Analysis of blindness as a symbol of hysteria. Archives of Ophthalmology 43, 357–367.Google Scholar
American Psychiatric Association (1968). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (second edn.) APA: Washington. D.C.Google Scholar
American Psychiatric Association (1980). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (third edn.) APA: Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
Babinski, J. (1909). Démembrement de l'hystérie traditionelle. Pithiatisme. La Semaine Medicate 29, 3–8.Google Scholar
Barnett, C. (1971). Conversion reaction and psychosiologic disorders: a comparative study. Psychiatry in Medicine 2, 209–220.Google Scholar
Behrman, J. & Levy, R. (1970). Neurophysiological studies on patients with hysterical disturbance of vision. Journal of Psychosomatic Research 14, 187–194.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Berman, M. S. & Levi, D. M. (1975). Hysterical amblyopia: electrodiagnostic and clinical evaluation. American Journal of Optometry and Physiological Optics 52, 267–274.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brady, J. P. (1966). Hysteria versus malingering: a response to Gross and Zimmerman. Behavioral Research and Therapy 4, 321–322.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brady, J. P. & Lind, D. L. (1961). Experimental analysis of hysterical blindness. Operant conditioning techniques. Archives of General Psychiatry 4, 331–339.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burch, F. E. (1925). Hysterical amblyopia and amaurosis. American Journal of Ophthalmology 8, 699–712.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Campbell, K. (1915). A case of hysterical amblyopia. British Medical Journal ii, 434.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carter, A. B. (1949). The prognosis of certain hysterical symptoms. British Medical Journal ii, 1071–1079.Google Scholar
Chambers, R. & Cinotti, A. A. (1965). Functional disorders of central vision. American Journal of Ophthalmology 59, 1091–1095.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cordes, F. C. & Horner, W. D. (1933). Hysterical amblyopia. Report of three cases. American Journal of Ophthalmology 16, 592–597.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Costenbader, F. D. & Mousel, D. K. (1964). Functional amblyopia in early adolescence. Clinical Proceedings of Children's Hospital 20, 49–58.Google ScholarPubMed
de Schweinitz, G. E. (1906). Neurosis and psychosis. In Eye and Nervous System (ed. Posey, W. C. and Spiller, W. G.), pp. 614–696. J. P. Lippincott Company: Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Deutsch, A. R. (1968). Malingering and conversion reactions in ophthalmology. Journal of the Tennessee Medical Association 61, 694–698.Google ScholarPubMed
Downing, A. H. (1944). Ocular defects in six thousand selectees. Archives of Ophthalmology 33, 137–143.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Drews, R. C. (1967). Organic versus functional ocular problems. International Ophthalmologic Clinics 67, 665–696.Google Scholar
Duke-Elder, W. S. Sr (1949). Textbook of Ophthalmology, Vol. 4. C. V. Mosby: St Louis.Google Scholar
Erickson, M. H. (1954). Special techniques in brief hypnotherapy. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis 2, 109–129.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fallik, A. & Sigal, M. (1971). Hysteria – the choice of symptom site. Psychotherapeutics and Psychosomatics 19, 310–318.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Forest, D. W. (1974). Von Senden, Mesner, and recovery of sight in the blind. American Journal of Psychology 87, 719–722.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Freisen, H. & Mann, W. A. (1966). Follow-up study of hysterical amblyopia. American Journal of Ophthalmology 62, 1106–1115.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Freud, S. (1910). Psychogenic visual disturbance according to psychoanalytic conceptions. In Collected Papers, Volume 2, pp. 105–112. Basic Books: New York.Google Scholar
Garvey, J. L. (1922). Hysterical homonymous hemianopia. American Journal of Ophthalmology 5, 721–722.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gogela, L. J. & Rucker, C. W. (1951). Psychogenic changes in the field of vision associated with tumors of the frontal lobe of the brain. American Journal of Ophthalmology 34, 185–188.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Greenleaf, E. (1971). The red house: hypnotherapy of hysterical blindness. American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis 13, 155–161.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gross, M. P. & Sloan, S. H. (1971). Patients with eye symptoms and no organic illness: an interdisciplinary study. Psychiatry in Medicine 2, 298–307.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Grosz, H. J. & Zimmerman, J. (1965). Experimental analysis of hysterical blindness. Archives of General Psychiatry 13, 255–260.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Halpern, H. J. (1944). Hysterical amblyopia. Bulletin of United States Army Medical Department 72, 84–87.Google Scholar
Hurst, A. F. & Symms, J. L. M. (1919). Narrow and spiral fields of vision in hysteria, malingering and neurasthenia. British Journal of Ophthalmology 3, 17–21.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kass, D., Silvers, F. & Abrams, G. (1972). Behavioral group treatment of hysteria. Archives of General Psychiatry 26, 42–50.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kathol, R. G., Cox, T. A., Corbett, J. J., Thompson, H. S. & Clancy, J. (1983). Functional visual loss: II. Psychiatric aspects in 42 patients followed for 4 years. Psychological Medicine 13, 315–324.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keane, J. R. (1979). Hysterical hemianopia. The ‘missing half’ field defect. Archives of Ophthalmology 97, 865–866.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kramer, K. K., La Piana, F. G. & Appleton, B. (1979). Ocular malingering and hysteria: diagnosis and management. Survey of Ophthalmology 24, 89–96.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Krill, A. E. (1967). Retinal functional studies in hysterical amblyopia. A unique abnormality of dark adaptation. American Journal of Ophthalmology 63, 230–237.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Krill, A. E. & Newell, F. W. (1968). The diagnosis of ocular conversion reaction involving visual function. Archives of Ophthalmology 79, 254–261.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Leaverton, D. R., Rupp, J. W. & Poff, M G. (1977). Brief therapy for monocular hysterical blindness in childhood. Child Psychiatry and Human Development 7, 254–262.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lewis, F. P. (1948). Monocular hysterical blindness. American Journal of Ophthalmology 31, 870–873.Google ScholarPubMed
Lincoff, H. A. (1959). Bilateral central scotoma of hysterical origin. American Medical Association Archives of Ophthalmology 62, 273–279.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Linhart, W. O. (1956). Field findings in functional disease, American Journal of Ophthalmology 42, 75–84.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mahoney, V. P. & Linhart, W. O. (1943). Amblyopia in hysteria. Report of 13 cases. War Medicine 3, 503–507.Google Scholar
Mann, W. A. (1960). Hysterical amblyopia. Quarterly Bulletin of the Northwestern University Medical School 34, 215–225.Google ScholarPubMed
Moore, W. O. (1888). Hysterical amblyopia treated with narcosis. Transcript of the American Ophthalmology Society 5, 80–86.Google Scholar
Nemiah, J. C. (1975). Hysterical neurosis, conversion type. In Comprehensive Textbook of Psychiatry II, Vol. 1 (ed. Freedman, A. M., Kaplan, H. I., and Sadock, B. J.), pp. 1208–1220. Williams & Wilkins: Baltimore.Google Scholar
Ohno, Y., Sugita, M., Takera, T., Akagi, M., Tanaka, V. & Ikemi, Y. (1974). The treatment of hysterical blindness by behavior therapy. Psychosomatics 15, 79–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parry-Jones, W. L. L., Santer-Westrate, H. C. & Crawley, R. C. (1970). Case histories and shorter communications. Behavior therapy in a case of hysterical blindness. Behavior Research and Therapy 8, 79–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pattie, F. A. (1935). A report of attempts to produce uniocular blindness by hypnotic suggestion. British Journal of Medical Psychology 15, 230–241.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rada, R. T., Meyer, G. G. & Krill, A. E. (1969). Visual conversion reaction in children: I. Diagnosis. Psychosomatics 10, 23–28.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rada, R. T., Krill, A. E., Meyer, G. G. & Armstrong, D. (1973). Visual conversion reaction in children: II. Follow-up. Psychosomatics 14, 271–276.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rada, R. T., Meyer, G. G. & Kellner, R. (1978). Visual conversion reaction in children and adults. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 166, 580–587.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Raskin, M., Talbott, J. A. & Meyerson, A. T. (1966). Diagnosed conversion reactions. Journal of the American Medical Association 197, 530–534.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Roden, R. G. (1979). Psychoanalytically oriented hypnotic treatment of autoerythrocytic sensitization and blindness. American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis 21, 278–281.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rowland, W. D. & Rowe, A. W. (1929). Marked concentric contraction of the visual fields: a study of 100 consecutive cases. Transactions of the American Academy of Ophthalmologists 34, 107–114.Google Scholar
Sackeim, H. A., Nordlie, J. W. & Gur, R. C. (1979). A model of hysterical and hypnotic blindness: cognition, motivation and awareness. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 88, 474–489.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schlaegel, T. F. (1958). Spiral visual fields. American Medical Association Archives of Ophthalmology 59, 18–23.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schlaegel, T. F. & Quilala, F. V. (1955). Hysterical amblyopia. Statistical analysis of forty-two cases found in survey of eight hundred unselected eye patients at a state medical center. Archives of Ophthalmology 54, 875–884.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Singhal, N. C. (1977). Hysterical blindness versus malingering. Indiana Journal of Ophthalmology 20, 173–178.Google Scholar
Spaeth, E. B. (1930). The differentiation of the ocular manifestation of hysteria and of ocular malingering. Archives of Ophthalmology 4, 911–938.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stiefel, J. R. (1964). Monocular hysterial blindness. American Journal of Psychiatry 121, 393–395.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Unsworth, A. C. (1945). A discussion of ocular malingering in the armed services. American Journal of Ophthalmology 28, 148–160.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van Balen, A. T. G. M. & Slijper, F. E. M. (1978). Psychogenic amblyopia in children. Journal of Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus 15, 164–167.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Veith, I. (1974). Blinders of the mind: historical reflections of the functional impairment of vision. Bulletin of Historical Medicine 48, 503–516.Google ScholarPubMed
Walsh, F. P. (1969). Clinical Neurophthalmology (third edn.) Williams & Wilkins: Baltimore.Google Scholar
Wilkins, L. G. & Field, P. B. (1968). Helpless under attack: hypnotic abreaction in hysterical loss of vision. American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis 10, 271–275.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wolff, E. & Lachman, G. S. (1938). Hysterical blindness in children. American Journal of Disease in Children 55, 743–749.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
World Health Organization (1977). Manual of the International Statistical Classification of Disease, Injuries, and Causes of Death (ninth revision), Vol. I. WHO: Geneva.Google Scholar
Yasuna, E. R. (1946). Hysterical amblyopia. Its differentiation from malingering. American Journal of Ophthalmology 29, 570–578.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Yasuna, E. R. (1951). Hysterical amblyopia in children and young adults. American Medical Association Archives of Ophthalmology 45, 70–76.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Yasuna, E. R. (1963). Hysterical amblyopia in children. American Journal of Disabled Children 106, 68–76.Google ScholarPubMed