Conversion disorder or multiple sclerosis?

Conversion Disorder, also called Functional Neurological Symptom Disorder as per DSM-5, is a psychiatric illness characterised by involuntary neurological symptoms in the absence of organicity. Conversion disorder can be misdiagnosed, especially in high-pressure environments such as emergency departments (ED) given the stigma associated with mental illness. Earlier studies found the incidence of misdiagnosis to be as high as 4% (Stone et al., 2005), but more recent studies have reported it to be 0.23 to 1% (Fishbain and Goldberg, 1991). We present a case of Multiple Sclerosis (MS) misdiagnosed as Conversion Disorder and discuss the role of stigma.