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.
My journey with FND began in 2016 when I was 13 years old. My physical and cognitive abilities were rapidly deteriorating. I had to leave school as it was no longer safe for me because of my sudden deterioration. I then lost the ability to walk and talk.
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?
Maja Bagdziun shares her story with LDUK, after being given “a confusing FND label” because she tested negative for Lyme infection.
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.
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.
Elly Littlejohn was diagnosed with FND after losing her daughter to a drunk driver, despite abnormal MRI findings. Years of worsening symptoms, additional brain lesions and abnormal spinal fluid results eventually led to an MS diagnosis. Her story raises serious questions about diagnostic anchoring, trauma-based assumptions and delayed treatment.
Emma Tinkler already had multiple sclerosis when worsening neurological symptoms were labelled FND. After two years of deteriorating mobility, a second neurologist diagnosed Parkinson’s disease. Six weeks after starting medication, she was walking normally again.
A musician developed changing accents after reported seizures, a head injury and cardiac arrest. Doctors diagnosed FND. But what neurological explanations were investigated, and what evidence supports the diagnosis?
A Reddit user reports spending four years diagnosed with FND before receiving a Parkinson's disease diagnosis following a DaTscan. They say appropriate medication improved their condition, raising questions about the original diagnosis and the consequences of delayed investigation.
Violinist Amy Wang-Hiller describes how suspected FND, a PNES diagnosis and repeated psychological attribution allegedly delayed recognition of tethered spinal cord, cervical instability and progressive paralysis.
A Reddit user reports spending two years diagnosed with FND and anxiety before investigations reportedly identified autoimmune and genetic neurological conditions. Their experience raises questions about overlapping symptoms, diagnostic closure, and why complex presentations may be interpreted as functional.
A patient diagnosed with FND reports that a second opinion revealed autoimmune basal ganglia encephalitis. Their account raises questions about incomplete investigations, overlooked neurological findings and whether an unexplained illness was prematurely labelled functional.
Real clinical cases documented in published medical case reports.
A man whose variable, distractible and inconsistent neurological findings contributed to a diagnosis of conversion disorder continued to deteriorate for years. After his death, neuropathology and genetic testing confirmed Gerstmann-Sträussler-Scheinker syndrome, showing how genuine clinical observations can support the wrong diagnostic interpretation.
A 64-year-old woman was diagnosed with a functional neurological movement disorder after clinicians observed distractibility, variability and entrainment. Within weeks, worsening symptoms and newly abnormal EEG and MRI findings reopened the investigation, and a brain biopsy confirmed sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.
A published case report documents a patient initially diagnosed with FND whose progressive neurological deterioration led to further investigation and an eventual diagnosis of progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP).
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?
A patient diagnosed with FND recovered completely after surgical repair of a CSF leak. Why did the diagnosis remain? This article explores what the case reveals about comorbidity, diagnostic reasoning, and the falsification problem in FND.
A critical look at a case of postoperative paralysis labelled as FND, questioning whether pre-existing neurological instability and predictive processing may better explain the presentation than a purely functional diagnosis.