Is Your Child Having Strange Symptoms‪?‬ Hilary Topper On Air

Is your child having strange symptoms? Imagine your child wakes up one morning and can't move an arm or a leg, has trouble speaking, can't taste, is suffering small seizures, or even temporarily blinded, all the tests come back normal and the doctors can't figure it out. This is an alarming trend that's happening now in children and some adults as a result of acute stress due to COVID-19. This is called conversion disorder. And although it's usually temporary, it's a way the brain copes with too much emotional stress. What parents do and what do they need to know?
I'm Hilary Topper and this is Hilary Topper on air. Today I have the great pleasure of speaking with Dr. Fumi Stephanie Hancock, CEO of Pool of Bethesda Psychiatric Health and a bestselling author of 24 self-help books. Dr. Hancock, welcome to the show.
Dr. Hancock - Thank you so much for having me, Hilary. Thank you.
Hilary - So can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your background?
Dr. Hancock - Oh, wow. Well, I'm a board-certified psychiatric, doctor of nurse practice out of Arizona. I own a group of clinics, but, prior to that, I was a social worker. This means that I was already exposed to seeing children go from foster care to adoption and just the cyclical, you know, go in and out and in and out. And I was able to see a lot of mood disorders going on. And because of that, I went back to school to do nursing until I got to the advanced practice. And now this is all I do. I see patients from four years old all the way to 99 years old.
Hilary - Wow. Let's talk about conversion disorder. What exactly is it and why is it prevalent right now among children?
Dr. Hancock - Thank you so much for asking that question. Uh, when you look at that word convert right conversion, which means something changing from one state to the other. And so when you talk about conversion in psychiatric, we're talking about people who exhibit certain symptoms, but when you take them to a physician, you really cannot find a medical reason for these things that they're going through. So it's more of, it becomes more of a mental issue, even though that what they are exhibiting looks like a physical, like a physical thing that primary care can take care of.
Hilary - So, how do you go about treating this? I mean, first, it's gotta be diagnosed and I'm sure these children, they put them through a lot of different tests before they come to this.
Dr. Hancock - Absolutely. A lot of times, because it is not something that is so known, so I thank you for even bringing it to the forefront because, with the pandemic and everything, kids are being brought to someone like me, brought a family, going to primary care and thinking, oh, well, you know, they have seizures or they can't move or, oh, well, they can't speak well. So you have people really looking at all the things before, even looking at conversion. And so, because of that, it's important that we ask them. Parents were with that, seeing all these signs that are there feel like physical and you're going to the primary care and they say, uh, yeah, it looks physical. We ran a test, we did an EKG. We did all kinds of blood work. We do all things, nothing. We don't see anything there. Then it's time to come to a psychiatric person like myself because we know that it is more of a mental health issue than a physical issue.
Hilary - Well, before we move on, just have to say that I am so appreciative of our sponsors and must take a moment to thank them. Please support our sponsors and tell them that you heard about them on Hilary Topper on air. Special thanks to the Russo law group, the Profit Express with Tim Healy, Pop International Galleries, Gold Benes LLP, and the Pegalis Law Group.
Now, Dr. Hancock back to you, we were talking about conversion disorders in children. What tips can you offer parents regarding mental health for children as we start to come out of this COVID-19 pandemic.
Dr. Hancock - Thank you for asking that