A diagnosis is made via a medical professional’s evaluation.
Medical professionals first check for physical, particularly neurological, disorders that can account for the symptoms by taking a thorough medical history, doing a thorough physical examination, and doing tests.
The key to the diagnosis is that symptoms do not match those caused by any neurological disorder. For example, the individual may tremble and think that the trembling is caused by a seizure disorder. But when the individual is distracted, the trembling disappears. If individuals have a seizure disorder, distractions do not stop the trembling.
Also, for medical professionals to diagnose conversion disorder, the symptoms must cause substantial distress and interfere with functioning.
Once medical professionals determine that the symptoms do not match those caused by any neurological disorder, they consider the diagnosis of conversion disorder.
The diagnosis is made based on all the information from the evaluation.
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