Neuropsychiatric assessment of a spinal cord injury patient with sudden recovery.

Reported here is the case of a 23-year-old man who, presenting as a spinal cord injury patient with paraplegic and bilateral sensory impairments in the legs, made a rather dramatic recovery after receiving a trivial jolt while moving about in his wheelchair. In addition to clinical findings, both hypnotic and somatosensory evoked potential test results were used to help determine whether there was or was not actual spinal cord injury and whether there was or was not a psychologic overlay involving either malingering or a conversion disorder. In this case, evidence pointed to malingering in the presence of a minor spinal cord injury documented by somatosensory evoked potential patterns.