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Some psychiatric conditions produce symptoms that can mimic an acute neurological disease, including stroke.1–3 In several studies, such symptoms seemed to be more common on the left side of the body.1–3 The predominant processing of emotional information by the right hemisphere offers a hypothetical explanation for this finding.
We reviewed the discharge summaries of patients who were admitted to a stroke unit during the period May 1996 to December 2003 with a diagnosis of acute stroke and who had a discharge diagnosis of somatoform disorder and/or anxiety disorder according to the DSM-IV, revised4 criteria, and no recent stroke, according to the World Health Organisation definition.5
Two investigators (CS and LC) reviewed the discharge summaries independently …