Missouri State Rep. Tricia Byrnes is seeking a filmmaker to investigate Functional Neurological Disorder. She says hundreds of families report children were labeled with FND before doctors fully checked seizures and loss of mobility, and that second opinions were blocked.
Maddie Aumann was diagnosed with FND before genetic testing identified a rare SCN9A disorder. Her mother, Christine Aumann, describes how the FND label continued to affect Maddie’s care even after that discovery, ultimately helping inspire Maddie’s Law.
A hand-picked selection of articles to explore first.
How do we know when a medical diagnosis has actually been demonstrated rather than simply defined? This post examines FND through ontology, epistemology and axiology, asking what positive signs really establish, where classification ends and explanation begins, and whether the confidence placed in the diagnosis matches the strength of the evidence behind it.
An exploration of FND, positive rule-in signs, comorbidity, predictive processing, diagnostic closure, and whether functional symptoms may reflect common phenotypes arising from multiple underlying conditions.
What advice would I give to anyone newly diagnosed with this disorder? Advice that I wish I had received back then?
A critical examination of Functional Neurological Disorder, its historical roots, diagnostic evolution, and whether the shift to a positive diagnosis risks closing the door on further investigation.
Recent posts from people sharing how FND has affected them.
A Reddit user describes recurrent episodes of one-sided paralysis that were diagnosed as FND. She says she raised hemiplegic migraine herself but it was rejected. Three years later, a headache specialist diagnosed chronic hemiplegic migraine, and she reports substantial improvement with migraine treatment.
A Reddit user questioned their FND diagnosis while being investigated for myasthenia gravis. Weeks later, they reported respiratory failure requiring intubation, an MG diagnosis and treatment with IVIG and plasma exchange. A later FND specialist assessment reportedly found no FND symptoms.
I was diagnosed with FND 2 years ago, with symptoms first appearing 3-4 years ago. I am a female in my 20s. Here are a few things I wish I knew when I first got diagnosed (these are all just my opinions based on my experience, they are not facts)clinician
A reader shared this account from a woman misdiagnosed with FND who later learned she had mixed connective tissue disease (now lupus), small fiber neuropathy, and dysautonomia. She writes about autoimmune effects on the nervous system, getting a second opinion, and finding doctors who listen.
A young woman with lupus and Sjögren’s was diagnosed with FND without an EEG, spinal tap, or extensive laboratory testing. Further investigation at another hospital revealed a previous stroke and autoimmune abnormalities, leading to a diagnosis of CNS lupus.
A 38-year-old patient diagnosed with FND after limited testing was later found to have three treatable heart conditions that explained their symptoms, including extreme daily heart-rate fluctuations previously dismissed as anxiety.
Posts with the highest number of comments.
Examines Hoover's sign in a patient with true fatigable weakness. Highlights how objective isokinetic testing better captures performance deficits than traditional clinical signs, preventing misinterpretation as functional weakness.
Barely a week after launching this website and I already received my first calls to take it down.
A patient diagnosed with FND recovered completely after surgical repair of a CSF leak. Why did the diagnosis remain? This article explores what the case reveals about comorbidity, diagnostic reasoning, and the falsification problem in FND.
One of the most common analogies that you would come across within FND literature is the software/hardware analogy.
One of the most striking things you notice when you first start reading the literature on FND is how crucial it is considered for patients to accept and believe in the diagnosis. Without that belief, treatment is often regarded as futile. They simply will not get better.
The biggest misconception out there is that someone can’t have a functional disorder if they also have an organic medical disease, disorder, or condition. The reality, of course, is that very, very rarely do functional disorders develop without an underly
The latest things happening across FND Nope.
