Questioning FND. Challenging dogma. Putting patients first.
FND Nope
Moderator
Welcome to FND Nope's official space. This is where we share updates, investigations, research, and reflections on Functional Neurological Disorder, with a particular focus on diagnostic practices, medical dogma, patient safety, and accountability. We question assumptions, challenge established narratives, and believe no diagnosis should be beyond scrutiny. You don't have to agree with us. In fact, we welcome opposing perspectives. What matters is evidence, open discussion, and the willingness to ask difficult questions.
Studies using 7 Tesla MRI have uncovered neurological lesions missed by conventional scans, sometimes confirmed through surgery and pathology. So how much confidence should clinicians place in a normal MRI, and what happens when they decide patients do not need imaging at all?
A 2026 Brain Sciences paper proposes that functional cognitive disorder and persistent post-concussion symptoms may converge on the same memory networks despite different origins. The theory raises important questions about neurological mechanisms, diagnostic uncertainty, and whether shared symptoms necessarily establish a shared disorder.
An international study involving 1,853 patients and 400 clinicians reveals profound disagreements over FND diagnoses in autoimmune disease, reports of diagnostic overshadowing, and clinical reasoning that raises important questions about whether neurological symptoms attributed to FND may have different underlying causes.
A 30-year-old man with severe headaches, dizziness, exhaustion and dramatic weight loss was discharged with psychosomatic complaints after routine investigations found little wrong. Two weeks later, further testing revealed acute Lyme neuroborreliosis, a serious neurological infection that responded rapidly to antibiotics.
A 2019 case report documents a woman whose weakness, anxiety and reported positive Hoover's sign raised suspicions of conversion disorder. Further investigations uncovered objective neurological abnormalities and evidence supporting possible Lyme neuroborreliosis.
Polly Patterson questioned FND diagnoses in post-viral illness, carefully explaining that she wasn't dismissing patients or denying their suffering. FND Action's Kim Hearne responded with a nine-part critique. The exchange reveals how easily legitimate questions about medical practice become arguments about compassion, credibility and stigma.
Marion Brown, a retired Scottish psychotherapist and friend of this website, has spent years exposing how antidepressant withdrawal and adverse drug reactions can be overlooked, dismissed, or misdiagnosed as Functional Neurological Disorder and medically unexplained symptoms. We examine her research, parliamentary advocacy, and the patient experiences behind her work.
Lyme disease can have lasting consequences, but persistent symptoms do not necessarily mean persistent infection. We examine untreated infection, reinfection, treatment limitations, PTLDS and the difficult questions raised when patients with unresolved neurological symptoms receive an FND diagnosis. Drawing on published research, patient accounts and discussions on FND Nope, we also explore how clinical terminology can obscure rather than clarify diagnostic uncertainty.
Psychiatrist David Healy challenges the use of FND diagnoses in patients experiencing persistent medication-related neurological symptoms, warning that drug toxicity can be overlooked, patients dismissed and potentially harmful treatments repeated.
A reader highlights how children and adults with periodic paralysis, a recognised neuromuscular channelopathy, can be labelled with FND or anxiety instead. Medical literature confirms the diagnostic risk, including cases where appropriate testing identified a treatable disorder.
A major 2026 study links FND diagnoses to inherited disorders, congenital abnormalities, neurodevelopmental conditions and early-life biological factors. But are these vulnerabilities to FND, or evidence that different biological diseases produce overlapping clinical phenotypes? We examine the findings through the Common Phenotypes Hypothesis.
A 2025 case series documents two young women whose involuntary movements were attributed to functional neurological disorder before testing confirmed POTS. One was later diagnosed with FND again after developing paralysis, only for further investigation to reveal hypokalemic periodic paralysis.