The concept of conversion hallucination is a relatively new one, however there have been several articles written on this phenomena, some attesting to it being a special form of hallucination while others dismissing it altogether. But currently this concept is slowly being accepted among psychiatrists and as such it is important for us to understand some of the concepts. In this case report, the patient presented with clear conversion hallucinations. The case is followed by a discussion on true and pseudo-hallucinations, previous case reports and finally a discussion of conversion hallucinations, viz. the clinical features and the conversion hypothesis.
We report a 33-year-old Chinese gentleman who presented with visual epilepsy and symptoms of raised intracranial pressure in which clinical examination revealed normal visual fields and acuity despite Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) brain showing large contrast enhancing mass at the right occipital lobe. Craniotomy and excision of tumour was done and the histology confirmed glioblastoma multiforme (GBM). He completed radiotherapy and recovered well except developing left inferior homonymous quadrantropia post operatively which improved with time.
In a cross-sectional study of 21 children with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus, 15 (71%) were found to have neuropsychiatric manifestations. The most common finding was generalised seizures (42.8%) followed by encephalopathy (19%) and hallucinations (19%). One child (4.76%) had hemichorea. In 3 children neurological manifestations were the first symptom of SLE. Computerised Axial Tomograms (CAT scans) showed cerebral atrophy in 7 of 12 scans available for review. Ten children had abnormal EEGs. Although none of the children had clinical evidence of a peripheral neuropathy, 8 had neurophysiological evidence of a neuropathy. One child died of intracranial haemorrhage. Six children had residual neuropsychiatric sequalae.