Paradoxical therapy in conversion disorder

Authors: Ahmet ATAOĞLU, Aytekin SIR, Mustafa ÖZKAN

Abstract: Paradoxical therapy consists of suggesting that the patient intentionally engages in the unwanted behaviour, such as performing complusive ritual or bringing on a conversion attack. In this study paradoxical intention (PI) was used with to half of the patients with conversion disorders, while the other half were treated with diazepam in order to examine the efficiency of the PI versus diazepam in conversion disorder. Patients treated with PI appeared to have a greater improvement rate for anxiety scores (z=2.43, p<0.0015) and conversion symptoms (t=2.27, p=0.034) than those treated with anxiolytics.

Keywords: Paradoxical intention, conversion, anxiolytics.

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