Health Topics for Mental and Emotional Health

Department of Psychiatry

Hysteria

You may have heard of someone becoming "hysterical." This term is not used in medicine or psychology today. What was once known as "hysteria" is now known to be several different disorders.

"Anxiety hysteria" is now called anxiety. Anxiety means worrying about the future, and becoming tense or stressed as a result. There are many treatments for anxiety including medications and therapy.

"Dissociative hysteria" is now called dissociative identity disorder. This is also known as multiple personality disorder. People with this disorder have more than one identity existing in their body. Treatment for this rare disorder is long-term therapy that often includes hypnosis.

"Mass hysteria" or "epidemic hysteria" were terms used when large groups of people showed the same emotional symptoms or became extremely excited at the same time. These epidemics may have been due at times to actual physical problems.

"Minor hysteria" was a term used to describe people who had minor pains, nervousness, and excitement. Some people diagnosed with this probably had one of the anxiety disorders. Others may have had mild forms of bipolar disorder formerly called manic-depressive disease. This is a disorder where people are sometimes very depressed and sometimes their moods become too high. Other people may have had actual physical complaints that could not be diagnosed with the technology of the times.

"Major hysteria" and "hysteroepilepsy" are old terms for pseudoseizures. These are seizure-like episodes that are not caused by physical problems. Instead, they are related to psychological problems.

When people express emotional pain through physical symptoms it is called a conversion disorder. People with this problem may have blindness, seizures, or an inability to move an arm or a leg. However, when medical tests are done, there is no medical basis for the problem. Conversion disorders are now easier to diagnose with new medical techniques. They are treated with psychotherapy, and behavior modification. "Conversion hysteria" is the former name for conversion disorder.

Many years ago, "hysteria" was a diagnosis made when no one really knew what was wrong. Now there are better tests for diagnosis and better treatments available.

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