Patient experiences and clinical cases relating to Functional Neurological Disorder.
Personal experiences of living with an FND diagnosis.
Maddie Aumann was diagnosed with FND before genetic testing identified a rare SCN9A disorder. Her mother, Christine Aumann, describes how the FND label continued to affect Maddie’s care even after that discovery, ultimately helping inspire Maddie’s Law.
Personal account of complex neurological and systemic symptoms following a tick bite, with a clinical diagnosis of FND made after extensive negative or inconclusive investigations. The author proposes an infectious origin involving Lyme disease and other tick-borne infections and reports improvement following targeted antibiotic treatment.
An 18-year-old developed severe neurological symptoms after a concussion, was diagnosed with FND after inconclusive testing, and later found to have tethered cord syndrome requiring surgery.
Miranda’s health collapsed almost overnight, progressing from difficulty walking to seizures, psychosis, and rapid neurological decline. Despite abnormal findings and worsening symptoms, she was quickly labelled with Functional Neurological Disorder, and further testing was repeatedly refused. Her story raises serious concerns about missed conditions like Autoimmune encephalitis and the risks of diagnostic overshadowing blocking proper care.
Email from a 21-year-old medical student in Kazakhstan sharing their detailed experience with neurological symptoms diagnosed as FND, highlighting objective signs of an organic lesion, diagnostic history, and concerns about misdiagnosis.
For the past seven years, my wife’s health has steadily declined, which forced me into research mode - diving deep into various medical fields through countless hours of studying medical journals, textbooks, clinical resources, and literature, as we were passed from specialist to specialist.
Real clinical cases documented in published medical case reports.
A 58-year-old woman with progressive swallowing and speech problems was diagnosed with functional movement disorder. Eleven months after onset, repeat imaging found advanced squamous-cell carcinoma. The authors say diagnostic bias from the FMD diagnosis even caused abnormal swallowing findings to be misinterpreted.
An FND case report found objective POTS after years of orthostatic symptoms were attributed to FND, anxiety and deconditioning. The authors call it comorbidity. But the case leaves a more important question unanswered: are the “functional signs” really evidence of a second disorder?
A 2020 clinical case reports positive Hoover's and hip abductor signs in a woman diagnosed with corticobasal syndrome. The authors identify apraxia as an alternative explanation, exposing an important limitation in the diagnostic interpretation of signs associated with functional neurological disorder.
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.
A 2024 case report describes a 42-year-old woman diagnosed and treated for FND despite persistent facial, oral and cervical movements. After treatment failed, neurology diagnosed Meige syndrome. The authors explicitly describe the original FND diagnosis as a misdiagnosis.
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.
A 65-year-old woman with an abnormal gait, cognitive decline and psychiatric symptoms was diagnosed with conversion disorder after inconclusive neurological investigations. Years later, genetic testing confirmed Huntington’s disease—raising a difficult question: what positive evidence had established conversion disorder in the first place?
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.
A 14-year-old boy was diagnosed with a functional movement disorder after presenting with suppressible involuntary movements and psychiatric comorbidity. Further investigation identified monogenic paroxysmal kinesigenic dyskinesia (PKD), while the authors noted that specific positive features supporting the original functional diagnosis had been absent.
A pediatric patient diagnosed with Functional Neurological Disorder was later found to have DYT-TOR1A dystonia and responded well to deep brain stimulation. The authors retained FND as a coexisting diagnosis, raising an important question: once a genetic disorder capable of producing the movements was identified, what evidence determined which symptoms remained functional?
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.
A woman with tremor, speech problems and slowed movements was diagnosed with conversion disorder after early neurological investigations were unrevealing. As her condition progressively deteriorated, genetic testing ultimately confirmed Gerstmann–Sträussler–Scheinker disease caused by a rare PRNP mutation.