Akhter Bibi, Uzma Masroor, Nazia Iqbal.
Dysfunctional attitudes and demographic correlates of patients with conversion disorder; an exploratory study.
J Pak Psych Soc Jan ;10(1):25-9.

Objective: To explore the possible etiological significance of dysfunctional attitudes among patients of conversion disorder and to investigate the demographic variables like gender, age, marital and socio-economic status of patients. Design: Cross sectional study. Place and Duration of Study: The study was conducted at different outdoor units of psychiatry departments of different private hospitals of Rawalpindi and Islamabad from October 2010 to December 2012. Subjects and Methods: A total of 100 individuals, 50 referred patients of conversion disorder (diagnosed as per DSM-IV criteria) were recruited through convenient sampling, while 50 normal individuals from the normal population (who have never registered as psychiatric patients) matched for demographic variables of experimental group. Dysfunctional attitude Scale (DAS) in addition to demographic data sheet were used to obtain data from the sample after taking the consent. The data was analyzed by SPSS version 18 by using ANOVA and correlation techniques. Results: The results showed that patients with conversion disorder exceeded the controls on the measure of dysfunctional attitude (p >.05). The findings also suggested that 82% female, 58%, unmarried, 90% younger and 58% patients with low socio-economic status suffer from conversion disorder among the sample. Conclusion: Patients with conversion disorder exhibit higher dysfunctional attitudes as compared to normal individuals .It is more prevalent among females, unmarried, younger individuals belonging to lower middle socio-economic class mostly then males and those who are married, older and belonging to higher socio-economic status.

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