Clinical Reasoning
Posts exploring how clinicians interpret symptoms, evidence, uncertainty, and patient narratives when forming, questioning, or revising a diagnosis.
Genetic Testing Can Miss Rare Neurological Diseases: European Experts Expose Diagnostic Gaps
FND Nope
Moderator
European experts have identified major inconsistencies in genetic testing for rare neurological diseases. Some conditions can produce unusual symptoms that resemble FND or other disorders, while existing tests may fail to identify their genetic causes. New recommendations aim to improve diagnostic accuracy.
Christina Applegate's MS Diagnosis Was Wrong. Five Years Later, She Still Has No Answers
Quackademic
Christina Applegate reveals that doctors have withdrawn her multiple sclerosis diagnosis after five years of debilitating symptoms. Her disability remains, her condition has reportedly worsened, and the search for an explanation starts again. The case raises questions about neurological misdiagnosis and the danger of replacing one incorrect diagnosis with another.
FND Treatment Trials Failed Their Primary Outcomes. Researchers Shifted the Goalposts.
FND Nope
Moderator
The CODES and Physio4FMD trials failed to demonstrate significant benefits on their primary outcomes. David Tuller exposes how FND researchers subsequently promoted secondary findings, questioned their original measures and misrepresented consensus recommendations.
Suicidality in FND: Are Researchers Overlooking the Obvious?
FND Nope
Moderator
When people live with disabling symptoms, chronic pain and uncertain futures, suicidal thoughts are hardly inexplicable. So why does FND research place such emphasis on psychiatric comorbidities? A closer look at the research agenda and the common-sense questions it raises.
Diagnosed with FND at 13, Eight Years Later Doctors Found a Chiari Malformation and Spinal Cord Syrinx
FND Nope
Moderator
Daniele Gray lost the ability to walk at 13 and was diagnosed with Functional Neurological Disorder. Eight years later, an MRI revealed a 20 mm Chiari I malformation and a spinal cord syrinx requiring surgery. Was the underlying neurological condition missed?
The Emotional Processing Theory of FND: Eight Years Later, Where Is the Proof?
FND Nope
Moderator
A 2019 review proposed that abnormal emotional processing could generate functional neurological symptoms. Nearly eight years later, its central causal mechanism remains unvalidated. We examine the original research, its acknowledged weaknesses, and what subsequent studies have actually established.
FND, Compensation and the Convenient Theory That Financial Support Keeps People Disabled
FND Nope
Moderator
A 2026 Frontiers in Neurology review explores whether compensation, litigation and financial support can reinforce FND disability. But where is the evidence that paying injured people keeps them sick, and what happens when speculative theories influence legal liability?
Another case of Lyme disease attributed to FND, due to negative Lyme testing
mel
Convalescent
Maja Bagdziun shares her story with LDUK, after being given “a confusing FND label” because she tested negative for Lyme infection.
Diagnosed With FND, Died From a Pulmonary Embolism: The Questions Allison Lawlor's Story Raises
FND Nope
Moderator
Allison Lawlor lived with severe neurological symptoms, received an FND diagnosis and later died from a pulmonary embolism. Her story raises important questions about diagnostic uncertainty, thromboembolic risk and why patients owe no loyalty to a diagnosis.
Diagnosed With FND. It Was Buerger's Disease. She Lost Her Leg
FND Nope
Moderator
Danielle Thomas reported numbness, worsening walking difficulties and legs that felt like they were dying. Doctors diagnosed FND. Months later, vascular investigations revealed blocked arteries, gangrene and Buerger's disease. She eventually underwent a below-knee amputation.
