Diagnostic Overshadowing
Posts exploring how an FND diagnosis may influence subsequent clinical reasoning, potentially leading symptoms, findings, or alternative diagnoses to be overlooked, discounted, or insufficiently investigated.
Pernicious Anaemia Mistaken for FND: Paralysis, Urinary Retention and a Missed Diagnosis
FND Nope
Moderator
A 29-year-old woman with progressive paralysis and severe urinary retention was discharged with suspected conversion disorder. Further investigation revealed vitamin B12 deficiency causing spinal cord damage. The case raises questions about diagnostic anchoring, negative imaging and premature closure.
Jo Puckett's FND Story in the Daily Mail: Questions Worth Asking
FND Nope
Moderator
A Daily Mail article about Jo Puckett's experience with FND raises questions about diagnostic certainty, psychological distress, medical dismissal and the difference between wanting answers and wanting to remain ill.
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.
When Dysautonomia Is Found, Does FND Get a Free Pass?
FND Nope
Moderator
Seventeen patients previously diagnosed with psychogenic seizures were found to have autonomic abnormalities. When the study prompted claims that FND and dysautonomia can coexist, it raised a more important question: what evidence justifies retaining the original diagnosis.
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.
Severe Hypoglycaemia Mistaken for Conversion Disorder
FND Nope
Moderator
A 2025 case report describes a 17-year-old with type 1 diabetes whose abnormal behaviour and movements were initially attributed to conversion disorder. Glucose readings of 36 and 24 mg/dL during attacks revealed severe hypoglycaemia, and the conversion diagnosis was withdrawn.
When FND Overshadowed an Axonal Neuropathy: A Case of AMSAN
FND Nope
Moderator
A 22-year-old woman entered rehabilitation with FND as her primary diagnosis while an underlying acute motor and sensory axonal neuropathy (AMSAN) remained unrecognised. EMG and nerve conduction studies later demonstrated extensive axonal damage, leading to IVIG treatment and improved rehabilitation progress. The authors explicitly describe the case as diagnostic overshadowing.
When Stress-Sensitive Stiffness Was Diagnosed as Conversion Disorder
FND Nope
Moderator
A 52-year-old woman developed progressive leg stiffness, spasms and severe gait impairment that worsened with stress and fatigue. After multiple evaluations, she was diagnosed with conversion disorder. A year later, markedly elevated anti-GAD antibodies and characteristic EMG abnormalities supported stiff-person syndrome, with significant improvement following IVIG.
Janet Dafoe on FND: "Where the Sun Don’t Shine"
X stories
Social media
ME/CFS advocate and psychologist Janet Dafoe has criticised psychosomatic explanations of poorly understood illness for years. In 2026, that criticism turned directly to FND, raising questions about diagnostic certainty, ME/CFS, Long COVID and what happens when uncertainty becomes a diagnosis.
A Case Report of Headache and Weakness Diagnosed as Functional Neurological Disorder
FND Nope
Moderator
A 26-year-old postpartum woman presenting with headache and neurological symptoms was discharged with anxiety and possible conversion disorder. She returned the following morning unable to walk. MRI revealed a thalamic infarction caused by cerebral venous thrombosis. The case also raises a broader question: if later disease does not necessarily invalidate an FND diagnosis, how is FND misdiagnosis actually identified and counted?
