Article: Tremors, seizures and paralysis: this brain disorder is more common than multiple sclerosis – but often goes undiagnosed (FND)

Sly Saint

Senior Member (Voting Rights)
Article in the Conversation (prides itself on evidence based reporting and fact checking)
Author
Benjamin Scrivener
PhD Candidate, Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau

What is functional neurological disorder?​

Neurological disorders are conditions that affect how the nervous system works. The nervous system sends and receives messages between the brain and other parts of your body to regulate a wide range of functions, such as movement, speaking, vision, thinking and digestion.

To the untrained eye, functional neurological disorder can resemble other conditions such as stroke, multiple sclerosis or epilepsy.


But, unlike these conditions, functional neurological symptoms aren’t due to damage or a disease process affecting the nervous system. This means the disorder doesn’t appear on routine brain imaging and other tests.

Functional symptoms are, instead, due to dysfunction in the processing of information between several brain networks. Simply put, it’s a problem of the brain’s software, not the hardware.
Symptoms may include paralysis or abnormal movements such as tremors, jerks and tics. This often leads to difficulty walking or coordinating movements.

Sensory symptoms may involve numbness, tingling or loss of vision.

Dissociative symptoms, such as functional seizures and blackouts, are also common.

Some people experience cognitive symptoms including brain fog or problems finding the right words. Fatigue and chronic pain frequently coexist with these symptoms.

These symptoms can be severe and distressing and, without treatment, can persist for years. For example, some people with functional neurological disorder cannot walk and must use a wheelchair for decades.

Diagnosis involves identifying established diagnostic signs and ensuring no other diagnoses are missed. This process is best carried out by an experienced neurologist or neuropsychiatrist.

How common is it?​

Functional neurological disorder is one of the most common medical conditions seen in emergency care and in outpatient neurology clinics.

It affects around 10–22 people per 100,000 per year. This makes it more common than multiple sclerosis.
People also need accurate information about their condition, because understanding and beliefs about the disorder play an important role in recovery. Accurate information helps patients to develop more realistic expectations, reduces anxiety and can empower people to be more active in their recovery.

A dark history​

The origins of the disorder are deeply rooted in the sexist history of its pre-scientific ancestor – hysteria. The legacy of hysteria has cast a long shadow, contributing to a misogynistic bias in perception and treatment. This historical context has led to ongoing stigma, where symptoms were often labelled as psychological and not warranting treatment.

Women with functional symptoms often face scepticism and dismissal. In some cases, significant harm occurs through stigmatisation, inadequate care and poor management. Modern medicine has attempted to address these biases by recognising functional neurological disorder as a legitimate condition.
 
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Pretty ridiculous to show this definition without pointing out that it's entirely speculative and relies entirely on absence of evidence for what it is, lacking the technology and knowledge of where to look for it, rather than actual evidence.

But it's even more ridiculous to have this "dark history" party that pretends that things have changed, when in fact the ideas are exactly the same and that this is a direct continuation.
A bright future? said:
Fortunately, awareness, research and interest has grown over the past decade. Many treatment approaches are being trialled, including specialist physiotherapy, psychological therapies and non-invasive brain stimulation.
This could have been written any decade going back at least a century. And so could this piece, changing a few words, the same idea being recycled again and again because there is no accountability or pressure. None of this delivers a damn thing, there is zero evidence for any of the claims. Same as it ever was and forever will be.

The link on "specialist physiotherapy" is the Physios4FMD group, which recently published studies that were complete busts, but still claimed some vague generic benefits on uselessly biased questionnaires. The others are just as weak as any of the 'promising' stuff they have been asserting for decades.

Hysteria / conversion disorder / psychosomatic models are like the heir to the throne, forever stuck in arrested development, always a failson, incapable of delivering anything of value, yet always, just by nature, heir to the throne, always promised to have future power, and so given present power just because of it. A tool of power meant to crush opposition to power's many failures, always propped up for no reason other than a mass delusion that this could possibly deliver something, one day, a day that is forever in the future, and a present just as dark as its past.
 
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