Functional paralysis mimicking spinal cord injury resulting in admission to a spinal cord injury center

From 1978 through 1982, five patients with final diagnoses of nonorganic functional paraplegia or quadriplegia were seen and treated at the Northern California Regional Spinal Cord Injury Center. The patients ranged in age from 13 to 26 years and four were males. All had normal bowel and bladder function with otherwise complete motor and sensory paralysis, shifting sensory findings, and normal deep tendon reflexes early after injury. In each patient, a retrospective analysis demonstrated that structural anatomic lesion could be ruled out by a neurologic examination. Clinical and investigatory studies are discussed with respect to the diagnostic process.