Hystero-epilepsy

Hystero-epilepsy

Hystero-epilepsy is an alleged disease "discovered" by 19th-century French neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot. [cite web|url=http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/picrender.fcgi?artid=2221928&blobtype=pdf |title=An Account of a Demonstration on the Phenomena of Hystero-Epilepsy Given by Professor Charcot |author=Arthur Gamgee |publisher=Br Med J. 1878 October 12; 2(928): 545–548.] It is considered a famous example of iatrogenic artifact, or a disease created by doctors.

The disease was considered a combination of hysteria and epilepsy. Charcot housed his "hystero-epilepsy" patients in the same ward as patients with epilepsy, because both were considered "episodic" diseases. At the time, both hysteria and epilepsy were believed to be neuroses; and diseases caused by the conversion of psychological distress into physical distress. Symptoms included "convulsions, contortions, fainting, and transient impairment of consciousness."

Joseph Babinski convinced Charcot that he was inducing the symptoms in his patients because of his treatment regimen. Spanos, Nicholas P. Multiple Identities and False Memories: A Sociocognitive Perspective (Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association, 1996).]

ee also

*Psychogenic non-epileptic seizures

References


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