Tag: FND
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Letter to Journal about Inflated Claims of FND Prevalence
I have spent some time trying to correct the record on the reported prevalence of functional neurological disorder (FND). As I have documented, leaders of the FND field have spent the last decade misrepresenting the findings of a seminal 2010 study, Stone et al, to claim that this diagnosis is the second-most-common presentation at outpatient…
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That Whine De Coeur about NICE’s Rejection of GET/CBT Regimen, and ME Action UK’s Disappearing Rebuttal
On July 10th, the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry (JNNP) published what can only be called a whine de coeur from a bunch of academics and investigators on the wrong side of a dispute with Britain’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). Their article was called “Anomalies in the review process and…
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Update on Efforts to Correct False Statements about FND Prevalence
I have continued writing my letter-writing effort to alert journals about papers on functional neurological disorder (FND) that have included false statements regarding the prevalence of the condition reported by a seminal study in the field the reported prevalence of the condition. (I was going to refer to this as a “letter-writing campaign” until I…
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A Letter to Psychological Medicine about Inflated FND Rate Claims
The journal NeuroImage: Clinical, an Elsevier title, recently agreed to correct the false statement that a 2010 study found functional neurological disorder to be the second-most-common diagnosis at outpatient neurology clinics. To the journal’s credit, it responded positively within days of receiving a letter about the matter from a group of us, although the correction…
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A Letter Requesting Corrections of Inflated Prevalence Rates in Nine More FND Papers
Several colleagues and I recently wrote to the journal NeuroImage: Clinical to request a correction in a 2021 article about functional neurological disorder (FND). The article included the false claim that a seminal 2010 study found that FND was the second-most-common diagnosis at outpatient neurology clinics. In fact, FND—called conversion disorder at the time—was the…
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FND Experts Agree To Correct Inflated Prevalence Claim
For years, experts in functional neurological disorder (FND) have cited a seminal study in their field to claim that the diagnosis was the second-most-common presentation at outpatient neurology clinics, with a prevalence of 16%. This claim was, and is, categorically untrue. The Scottish Neurological Symptoms Study (SNSS), which yielded multiple papers about a dozen years…
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A Letter Regarding Inflated Prevalence Rates for Functional Neurological Disorder
I have posted previously about how papers on functional neurological disorder (FND) have routinely mis-cited a seminal 2010 study in asserting that the diagnosis is the second-most-common presentation at neurology clinics, with a rate of 16%. In fact, the 2010 study found that only 5.5% had FND, the new name for the antiquated Freudian construct…
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Questions About the Prevalence of Functional Neurological Disorder and the Research on Hoover’s Sign for Functional Leg Weakness
(This is a long-ish post. Sorry! It covers two complicated issues. I want to thank an intrepid source for help with this.) I have great sympathy for patients diagnosed with functional neurological disorder (FND). Their symptoms can be seriously disabling and their plight has long been neglected and dismissed by the medical establishment. When I…
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Mt Sinai’s David Putrino on Long Covid and Functional Neurological Disorder
David Putrino is a neuroscientist and physical therapist at New York’s Mt Sinai Health System, where he is director of rehabilitation innovation. Over the last three years, he has worked extensively with patients experiencing prolonged symptoms after an acute bout of Covid-19, or what has become known as long Covid (LC). Last spring, I interviewed…
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Can Functional Neurological Disorder Be an Indication of Prion Disease?
A recent article in the Journal of Neurology presents a twist on the issue of functional neurological disorder (FND). The article, which was published in September, is called “Functional neurological symptoms as initial presentation of Creutzfeldt‐Jakob disease: case series.” Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease is a prion disorder that leads to dementia and death, usually within months. But…
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Brain Publishes Letter About Flawed Study from NYU on ‘Psychogenic POTS’
When I have previously written about functional neurological disorder, or FND, I have gotten flack from FND patients. I understand from these exchanges that some have taken what I have written as criticizing patients with these diagnoses or dismissing their suffering. That is certainly not my intention. I know these conditions can be extremely disabling.…
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A Letter About the Inflated Prevalence Rate of Functional Neurological Disorder
I have recently written two posts (here and here) about how experts in functional neurological disorder (FND) have a tendency to assert prevalence rates that ignore their own diagnostic criteria. Today I sent a letter to the corresponding author of yet another paper that has similarly engaged in this problematic strategy. I have posted the…