Psychogenic Deafness in Children

Applicability of ABR and AR in Its Diagnosis

Abstract

Three cases of psychogenic deafness in a 7-year-old and two 11-year-old girls have recently been seen in Tokai University Hospital. Two of them developed sensorineural deafness of flat type on pure tone audiograms after their mastoid processes were accidentally struck by a baseball bat or a corner of a table, but organic changes of the temporal bone were all ruled out. Because of descrepancy between pure tone thresholds and perceptive ability of conversation, psychatric investigation and assessment of auditory acuity by means of ASR and AR were performed in all three cases, and the results indicated that these children were found having a state of conflict with parents, and having psychogenic deafness.
In practical point of view, ABR and AR were proved as useful for threshold determination and diagnosis of psychogenic deafness in children, and for differential diagnosis between psychogenic deafness and traumatic sensorineural deafness.