Tag: functional neurological disorder
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My Request for Correction of Causal Claim for Functional Neurological Symptoms
This morning I sent the following letter to CNS Spectrums, a neuroscience journal published by Cambridge University Press. Subject line: “Correction needed for etiological statement in ‘Functional neurological symptoms occur commonly in healthy adults: implications for the pathophysiology of FND.’” Depending on the response, or lack of one, I might also formally submit the letter…
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So FND Is Not Only a Brain “Software” Issue After All…
*Kim H, a FND patient with whom I have frequently exchanged views, has left a comment below. I urge others to read it. I disagree with her interpretation, but I certainly think she has a right to express her perspective. However, I stand by my post. For years*, experts in functional neurological disorder (FND) have…
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Study Finds Signs of “Functional Limb Weakness” in Patients Not Reporting Actual Limb Weakness
A recently published study about functional neurological disorder (FND) has reported some perplexing data. Of almost 300 patients diagnosed with Long Covid, 100 were identified as demonstrating one or more “positive signs” for “functional limb weakness,” a form of FND. Yet only 14 of those 100 patients reported experiencing limb weakness in the first place;…
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Null Results in Physiotherapy Trial for Functional Motor Disorder
It must be tough for investigators when a major study seeking to assess the effectiveness of an intervention for a challenging condition yields null results. That’s what happened in 2019 with a trial of rituximab for ME/CFS, published in Annals of Internal Medicine. Findings from earlier research had suggested that rituximab, a drug used to…
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Leading FND Site Confirms Criticisms on Prevalence Outlined in Our Letter to Neurology Journal
In two recent posts, here and here, I wrote about our letter on inflated prevalence claims for functional neurological disorder (FND) and about the response from the authors of the study we criticized. The 2021 article in NeuroImage: Clinical, “Neuroimaging in functional neurological disorder: state of the field and research agenda,” asserted that FND was the…
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Update on Our Letter Concerning the Prevalence of Functional Neurological Disorder
In August, I submitted a letter to NeuroImage: Clinical concerning inflated rates of prevalence of functional neurological disorder, on behalf of myself and nine colleagues. After the letter went through peer review and a round of revisions, I was informed in early November that it had been accepted, as I noted in a blog post.…
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Letter on Inflated FND Prevalence Rates Accepted for Publication
As I have regularly noted, patients with diagnoses of functional neurological disorder (FND) experience tremendous suffering. A patient who goes by the moniker @FnDPortal has written a compelling and sometimes harrowing essay, Cadenza for Fractured Consciousness: A Personal History of the World’s Most Misunderstood Illness, that is well worth a read in order to understand some…
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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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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…