Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: UMLS:C0277787 (stigma)
 13,352 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Certain aspects of the history of hysteria from 1882 to the present day are discussed. Freud's discoveries about hysteria are contrasted with those of Janet, and it is shown how Freud, by treating the hysteric in a new setting, was able to reformulate his conception of the hysterical symptom so that it might be seen as a communication rather than as a stigma. This contrast between the views of Freud and Janet about the nature of the hysterical symptom is shown to be reflected in the current confusion about the concept of hysteria, and is also illustrated by means of two case histories, in both of which a change in the therapeutic setting led to a corresponding change in the understanding of the illness involved. The implications of these observations for the understanding of the history of hysteria are discussed.
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PMID:The symptom as stigma or communication in hysteria. 115 9

The acquired immunodeficiency syndrome and human immunodeficiency virus have had a major impact on the practice of medicine in the past 2 decades. Medical professionals are once again faced with a lethal contagious disease that has been transmitted in the health care setting to both patients and providers. Because of the stigma and fear associated with the infection, civil rights legislation, such as the Americans With Disabilities Act, has been used to protect infected individuals from inappropriate discrimination based on unwarranted fears and public hysteria. Various courts, with the backing of organized medicine and the public health authorities, have made it clear that it is illegal for a physician to refuse to treat a patient based on the patient's seropositivity. Unfortunately, various courts, with the backing of the American Medical Association and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, have made it clear that infected physicians are not necessarily afforded equal protection under the civil rights statutes.
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PMID:AIDS, surgery, and the Americans With Disabilities Act. 1063 47

The author discusses a "case of traditional hysteria" reported by Pierre Schmit, the first physician (1855-1866) of the Centre Hospitalier Neuropsychiatrique of Ettelbruck (Luxemburg), founded in 1855. Like Louise Lateau, a celebrated Belgian mystic living in the second half of the XIXth century, the patient suffered from ecstasy and stigma. The therapies of hysteria in this time are discussed: blood-letting, electrotherapy, clitoridectomy...
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PMID:[150 years of the Central Neuropsychiatric Hospital in Luxemburg. Dr. Pierre Schmit: a psychiatrist in spite of himself?]. 1717 50

"Hysterical" conversion hasn't vanished, and remains a diagnostic, therapeutic and relational challenge for the clinician. Conversion may be associated with organic disease. From the clinical point of view, two subtypes of conversion symptoms, namely psychogenic nonepileptic seizures and functional movement disorders, have been individualized. Physical signs of neurological inconsistency, and classical arguments in favor of a psychological etiology have been recently reevaluated, which allows, along with the progress of neurological investigations, to minimize the rate of misdiagnosis. Functional neuroimaging has shed light on the brain mechanisms involved in conversion phenomena. From a nosological point of view, there is a tension between the whish to "banalize" the conversion symptoms as mere "functional neurological symptoms", which makes easier to communicate the diagnosis to the patient and may remove the stigma from the diagnosis; and the wish of certain authors to "revive" hysteria, emphasizing the core phenomenon of dissociation and its close relationship with trauma. Proposed treatment of conversion disorder are numerous, although poorly evaluated and often insatisfactory, but recent publications insist on the importance of communicating the diagnosis to the patient in a honest, nonjudmental and understandable way, at the earliest phase of the disorder.
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PMID:[Hysterical conversion]. 2322 14