Dear Naomi - Here is an interesting article about the symptoms of your patient. Are they real or arenīt they? How does she behave when she isnīt under observation? Or when she doesnīt know that she actually is but you are watching her secretly? How does she behave in the water - usually these patients move quite normally in the water, at least to start with since they are afraid to drown... I do not wish to sound cruel... but obviously, there is some sort of gain for her in this behavior, maybe a psychologist would be suitable for finding out? OK here is the literature:
Maruff P, Velakoulis D: The voluntary control of motor imagery. Imagined movements in individuals with feigned motor impairment and conversion disorder.
Neuropsychologia 38 (2000) 1251- 1260
Hope this helps
Bodil
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