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Results
Demographics
The 26 Conversion Disorder patients (17 female, mean age 41.1±10.2 years) consisted of 11 right-sided and 15 left-sided upper limb weaknesses. Eighty-five percent of patients (22/26) had sensorimotor hemisyndrome and 15% (4/26) had pure motor hemisyndrome. Fifty-four percent (14/26) had a brachio-crural deficit and 46% (12/26) a facio-brachio-crural involvement.
The 28 organic patients (14 female, mean age of 62.9±14.7 years) consisted of 13 right-sided and 15 left-sided weaknesses. Seventy-one percent of patients (20/28) had sensorimotor hemisyndrome and 29% (8/28) had a pure motor hemisyndrome. Fourteen percent (4/28) had a brachio-crural deficit, 68% (19/28) a facio-brachio-crural, 14% (4/28) a facio-brachial and 4% (1/28) an isolated upper limb deficit. Twenty-three organic patients suffered from Stroke, 2 from Multiple Sclerosis, 1 from Progressive Multifocal Leukoencephalopathy, 1 from cerebral lymphoma, 1 from cerebral toxoplasmosis.
The Arm Stabilisation Test
All 26 Conversion Disorder patients (100%) had a positive "drift without pronation" sign when only two organic patients (7.1%) displayed a positive sign (p < 0.001).
The sensitivity of the test was 100% (95% CI:84%-100%) and the specificity 93% (95% CI:76%-98%).
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