The role of oxidative stress levels and S100B level in ethiopathogenesis of child conversion patients

OBJECTIVE:Accumulated data show that children and adolescents with conversion disorder demonstrate the activation or irregularity of multiple components of the stress system, and the stress system disease model provides a comprehensive neurobiological framework for understanding this complex group of patients. We predicted that there may be a relationship between the conversion disorder known to be triggered by stressor factors and oxidative stress parameters in the blood and S100B, and we aimed to compare the oxidative stress parameters and S100B protein in blood serum from conversion disorder patients and sera from healthy controls to test our hypothesis. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study included 37 patients (aged 8-18 years, who were diagnosed with conversion disorder according to DSM-5 diagnostic criteria and 37 from an age- and sex-matched control group. The childhood trauma scale and dissociative experiences scale were applied to both groups. Total oxidant level, total antioxidant level and S100B levels were compared from the conversion disorder and control groups. CONCLUSION: The etiology of conversion disorder has not been fully elucidated yet. In line with the data we obtained, although the oxidant and antioxidant balance and S100B blood serum levels are not found to be significant in our patients with conversion disorder, it is inevitable that stressor factors and traumatic life events are more common in patients with conversion disorder. There is a need to increase the number of samples to clarify the etiology of conversion disorder, which causes material losses by trying to receive different treatment services until children are diagnosed with serious impairment in functionality and diagnosis.