Philosophy
Posts exploring the assumptions, principles, and ways of thinking that shape how medicine understands diagnosis, illness, evidence, and uncertainty.
When Ignorance Becomes a Diagnosis: FND Experts Warn of Diagnostic Failure
Quackademic
FND researchers acknowledge that weak functional signs lack specificity, neurologists disagree, and unfamiliar diseases risk being labelled functional. The diagnostic problem is hiding in plain sight.
I Am Angry
Christoff
Spousal caregiver
I am angry that uncertainty became certainty, that softened language obscures what is actually being claimed, that scepticism is treated as hostility, and that while we argue about FND, my wife keeps getting sicker.
Inside the Reasoning of an FND Professional
Quackademic
We examined repeated public claims about FND made by an allied health professional who treats the disorder for a living. Some are supported by the literature. Others go much further than the evidence allows. The recurring problem is simple: evidence seems much better at confirming FND than disproving it.
The Diagnosis of the Gaps: FND and the Problem of Phenotype Overlap
Quackademic
Davenport et al.’s comparison of Long COVID, ME/CFS and FND has drawn criticism, but some apparent errors expose a deeper problem: when FND can resemble almost every common neurological phenotype, definitions can determine the answer before the differential even begins.
FND: New Name, Same Old Problems?
FND Nope
Moderator
FND is celebrated as an area of medical progress, but how much has actually changed? Historical research reveals continuity with hysteria and conversion disorder, while modern diagnostic uncertainty and limited treatment breakthroughs raise questions about whether institutional recognition has outpaced meaningful progress for patients.
FND and Autism: Does Diagnostic Overlap Establish Comorbidity?
FND Nope
Moderator
A 2025 study found an association between FND and autism diagnoses. But historical diagnostic codes, unresolved differentials and the possibility of shared phenotypes raise questions about whether the findings establish genuine comorbidity.
Why We Share These Stories
FND Nope
Moderator
Why FND Nope shares patient stories, diagnostic reversals and clinical cases: not to win an argument, but to preserve uncertainty, uncover possible clues and keep doors open when people are still sick.
Is FND falsifiable?
Christoff
Spousal caregiver
Karl Popper's criterion of falsifiability, first presented in Logik der Forschung (1934) and later translated into English as The Logic of Scientific Discovery (1959), is one of the most influential frameworks for separating science from pseudoscience.
FND: Philosophy Masquerading as Diagnosis - Part 2
Christoff
Spousal caregiver
The first thing to note is that FND is a product of medical constructivism (in contrast to medical realism). So if we are to buy into this philosophy, what exactly does that mean?
FND: Philosophy Masquerading as Diagnosis - Part 1
Christoff
Spousal caregiver
FND is a matter of philosophy, not fact. It is a disorder that was conceptually defined into existence, unlike diseases discovered through measurable physiology. The very idea that the expression of a symptom that cannot be explained somehow correlates to a "brain software" problem is speculative and should be treated as such.
