Functional neurological disorder after vaccination: a balanced approach informed by history, 2021, Wessely et al

Reports, incorporating video footage, of neurological symptoms such as paralysis and seizures as a complication of SARS-CoV-2 vaccination are circulating on social media and have caught the attention of the professional community.1 It is an urgent task to determine whether these are coincidental disease, potential pathophysiological complications of vaccine (such as Guillain Barre Syndrome) or rather constitute ‘immunisation stress-related responses’.2

What are immunisation stress-related responses?

Immunisation stress-related responses (ISRR) have been observed in different cultures, particularly in children and adolescents. Their occurrence is influenced by societal factors such as coverage of vaccination programmes in the media. Two basic sets of symptoms have been distinguished:3

1. Dizziness, headache, fainting; resolving within 24 hours; often in close-knit groups.
2. Shaking, twitching, difficulties walking; lasting weeks to months.

Both reactions can become contagious, through direct or social media contact, and then conceptualised as examples of ‘mass sociogenic illness’ (MSI). The ease with which ISRR can spread through direct or virtual social contacts may be related to the undercurrent of vaccination hesitancy that is present to a varying degree during most vaccination campaigns.4

https://www.rcpe.ac.uk/college/jour...r-vaccination-balanced-approach-informed#text

 

All vaccination centers explain the side-effects of vaccination, because they are a common immune response. Just like most medications explain the possible side-effects, because some of them are common.

But, sure, one can cherry-pick some of those symptoms and invent BS out of it. Hey, it's not as if most of those symptoms were very common, or anything like that. Or the obvious fact that many of those are obviously faking precisely to promote antivaccine sentiment.

Way to dump tanks of fuel on the antivaccine movement. This is exactly what's needed right now. Everyone knows it's important during a public health crisis to tell the plain truth so as to not promote distrust. Or you can just dump tanks of fuel on it. Everyone reacts differently to this stuff, Wessely is as predictable as a broken clock.

Let's just hope the news media has the good sense to keep this troll under his bridge and doesn't invite him for another self-promotion tour.

 

It's sad that they deal with serious side effects by labelling it mass hysteria. It fuels distrust.

There is a different way forward which is to admit these reactions exist and are not imaginary, and come up with safer vaccines or filtering of those who are at risk.

 

Is this the first time that Wessely has written anything in 'support' of FND? And I note that one of the other two authors is Carson, who is a prolific author on FND. Perhaps this is Wessely's (unsurprising) change of direction - he'll distance himself from BPS efforts for 'CFS/ME' and look to support the FND construct.

 

If only we knew his views of the new NICE guideline for ME/CFS. Perhaps that could explain the new direction.

 

Well, it's not just the omicron virus that needs to be fought, but the collective hysteria virus, oops !, I mean ISRR. I regret to tell you, dear authors, that I only fear the first since the second has the faculty of spreading only in the brain of certain psychiatrists ...

 

I think he just never used the label FND directly but he's long had the same opinion about "functional somatic syndromes" that happens to be exactly the same thing as FND and all the other acronyms.

I think it's really just an issue of preferred terminology, they are all saying the same thing in the end. It's just that Carson's and Stone's version is strictly about neurology, while Wessely sees it everywhere, but mainly through his psychiatric lenses.

There is only one functional somatic syndrome

 

That discussion between Profs. Wessely and White about whether FSS is one syndrome or a collection of different syndromes reminds me of Stephen Roberts's observation that “I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours.”

Peter White argues in the piece that:

Now if we could just take that logic a little bit further...

 

I thought some of the vaccines used for Covid-19 were brand new and experimental. So how can past history be used as a guide to how people will react to them?

 

Ah yes, this explains* why I was fine with the first two doses despite expecting side effects, and the booster hit me like a truck despite expecting to have no issue with it. (I am okay now thankfully!)

* sarcasm

 

They obviously need cognitive baaaahavioral therapy.

https://twitter.com/user/status/1477322313687310339

 

Well you know how it is with sheep. It just needs one to show the symptoms and they'll all be at it.

 

It's high time that we recognize that although the Wessely BPS school of thought has been especially successful at forcing their way onto practice, this problem is widespread throughout all medicine. Delusional beliefs are the norm on the issue of conversion disorder because belief in conversion disorder is itself a delusion, a mental illness invented by physicians to account for their failures.

The main reason why the Wessely school of thought has been successful is because they are selling something that is badly wanted. Others are selling it too, the problem is demand, not supply. If there were no demand for this no one would bother, but the demand is there and nearly infinite.

I especially love that their diagram, with a threshold, is not graduated. At some point it tips. At what point? Whatevs. You decide, based on how you feel. By comparison a graph without an x-axis is almost honest.

https://twitter.com/user/status/1532805481147813888


Mod note: We have a forum thread for the paper here
Functional Neurological Disorders and COVID-19 Vaccine: a Call for Action, 2022, Fung and Fasano

 

Letter to the editor for this paper. Have to scroll down the page, 4th letter: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/14782715221089063.

https://twitter.com/user/status/1545787455793684481

 

Note that the typos in the reply were introduced by the journal. Didn't see any typos in Carson/Wessely's reply-to-reply.

https://twitter.com/user/status/1545787504225357826