Research Paper
The International Journal of Indian Psychology
ISSN 2348-5396 (e) | ISSN: 2349-3429 (p)
Volume 6, Issue 1, DIP: 18.01.007/20180601
DOI: 10.25215/0601.007
http://www.ijip.in | January - March, 2018
© 2018 Khan M S & Zaheer K; licensee IJIP. This is an Open Access Research distributed under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution License (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits
unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any Medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Stress, Coping, and Depression in Patients with Functional
Neurological Symptom Disorder
Dr. Masha Asad Khan
1
*, Ms. Komal Zaheer
2
ABSTRACT
The present study aimed to investigate the relationship of coping strategies (adaptive &
maladaptive) with stress and depression among functional neurological symptom disorder
patients. A purposive sample of 250 patients (m=78; f=172), aged between 13-65 years
(m.a=25.43years; sd= 11.94) was selected from four different hospitals of lahore. Data was
collected by administering a demographic questionnaire, holmes and rahe stress scale (hrss),
brief cope scale, and beck depression inventory (bdi-ii). Ex post facto research design was
used. Data was analyzed by using pearson’s product moment coefficient of correlation and
mediation analysis. Individual testing with one time approach to participants was employed.
result indicated a significant relationship of coping strategies with stress and depression
among fnsd patients. Findings revealed maladaptive coping strategies (avoidance, emotional
focused, denial etc.) were positively correlated with stress and depression, whereas high
stress and depression were correlated with less usage of adaptive strategies (problem focused,
planning, humor, religious, etc.).
Keywords: Stress, Coping, Depression, Functional Neurological Symptom Disorder.
Functional Neurological Symptom Disorder (FNSD) was earlier referred to as Conversion
disorder. It is one of type of somatic symptoms and related disorders which involves
unexplained symptoms affecting voluntary motor or sensory functions of the body (American
Psychiatric Association, 2013). Person with FNSD is not “faking” but symptoms that appear
are not under the person’s conscious control and are mainly caused by psychological factors,
such as stress, conflict, attention seeking behavior etc. Generally, the presence of
psychological stress is considered to be a cause in FNSD and the patient lacks the adequate
strategy to deal with a stress (Stone, Carson, & Sharpe, 2005). Common symptoms include
weakness, blindness, paralysis, dystonia, gait disorder, psychogenic non-epileptic seizures,
motor tics, dementia etc. (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Ercan, Varan, and
Veznedaroglu (2003) reported the most common presentation of FNSD was pseudo-seizures,
1
Associate Prof. Applied Psychology Department, Kinnaird College for Women, Lahore Pakistan
2
M.Phil. Clinical Psychologist, Al-Karam Hospital, MandiBahauDdin., Pakistan
*Responding Author
Received: November 14, 2017; Revision Received: January 2, 2018; Accepted: January 25, 2018