Lana Clark and Charlene Leubner both have daughters who are being affected by Tourette-like symptoms in Le Roy, New York.
Dr. Drew asked what they say to people who insist the girls are faking their conditions.
“Live with the girls for just one week and you’ll see that they’re not faking,” Leubner said. “You can’t fake something like this. It’s way too much pain, and just the way that they twitch or the way that their outbursts are -- it’s impossible to fake."
If what the teens are experiencing is, indeed, conversion disorder, should the community expect more cases? Dr. Drew asked psychiatrist Dr. John Sharp.
“If it’s a conversion cluster, Drew, we’d see an increase in cases to a point,” Dr. Sharp said. “We don’t exactly know what that is. It may have already passed, and then you start to see a decrease. It’s a very treatable condition. So in terms of treatment, conversion is not a bad answer to this question.”
Dr. Drew added a reminder that "if it’s a toxic insult to the brain, that’s a worse prognostic situation than conversion. Conversion is not faking. It’s not malingering, which is a different disorder.”
Dr. Sharp also noted, “It’s not conscious. You just can’t say snap out of it. You’ve got to find a way to address an underlying problem.”
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