Severe Hypoglycaemia Mistaken for Conversion Disorder
FND Nope
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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 Glucose readings of 36 and 24 mg/dL during attacks revealed severe hypoglycaemia, and the conversion diagnosis was withdrawn.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
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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"
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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?
Misdiagnosed With FND: From Inpatient Rehabilitation to Neurosarcoidosis
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A Reddit user documented severe neurological symptoms, an FND diagnosis and inpatient rehabilitation before further investigation reportedly revealed neurosarcoidosis. The patient later said their neurosurgeon found that the original hospital MRI already contained findings relevant to the eventual diagnosis.
Diagnosed With FND After Three Weeks: 200 Seizures Later, Doctors Found Severe Hypoglycaemia
FND Nope
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Diagnosed with FND after three weeks, an Australian teenager endured around 200 seizures before severe hypoglycaemia linked to a gastrointestinal motility disorder was identified.
FND Diagnosis Followed by Multiple System Atrophy
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A Reddit user describes rapidly progressive neurological and autonomic symptoms that were diagnosed as FND despite their concerns that something else was wrong. Six months after publicly questioning the diagnosis and specifically raising MSA as a possibility, they updated their story to report that further investigation had resulted in a diagnosis of multiple system atrophy (MSA), by which point they were completely bedridden.
FND Diagnosis Followed by ALS and Metastatic Cancer
Reddit Stories
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A Reddit user documents a two-year journey in which progressive neurological symptoms were attributed to FND before they later reported receiving an ALS diagnosis, followed by the discovery of metastatic bladder cancer.
If FND Is Not ‘We Don’t Know’... What Exactly Do We Know?
FND Nope
Moderator
What do we actually know when we diagnose FND? A look at the epistemic limits of the diagnosis, the danger of treating unknowns as knowns, and how overstating certainty can contribute to diagnostic overshadowing and undermine advocacy.
