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The Weaponization of FND: Selma Blair, MS, and Hysteria With Better Branding
An FND-focused healthcare professional accuses Selma Blair of seeking sympathy, questions her MS history using dancing videos and declares her symptoms textbook FND. Apparently, hysteria got a rebrand, not a retirement.
When a 50-Minute Seizure Becomes “Textbook FND”: Diagnostic Certainty Without Evidence
A Doctor of Physical Therapy claims a 50-minute seizure can only be functional. But prolonged epileptic seizures are medically documented. This raises serious questions about professional authority, diagnostic overreach, positive signs, and the dangers of diagnosing patients on social media.
When Ignorance Becomes a Diagnosis: FND Experts Warn of Diagnostic Failure
FND researchers acknowledge that weak functional signs lack specificity, neurologists disagree, and unfamiliar diseases risk being labelled functional. The diagnostic problem is hiding in plain sight.
When Defending FND Means Missing the Point
David Healy's warning that drug toxicity can disappear behind an FND diagnosis has provoked predictable criticism. But much of the response confuses how FND is supposed to be diagnosed with how it is actually diagnosed. The literature itself shows misdiagnosis, overdiagnosis and diagnostic overshadowing occur. You can dislike Healy's language. You still have to answer his argument.
Inside the Reasoning of an FND Professional
We examined repeated public claims about FND made by an allied health professional who treats the disorder for a living. Some are supported by the literature. Others go much further than the evidence allows. The recurring problem is simple: evidence seems much better at confirming FND than disproving it.
The Diagnosis of the Gaps: FND and the Problem of Phenotype Overlap
Davenport et al.’s comparison of Long COVID, ME/CFS and FND has drawn criticism, but some apparent errors expose a deeper problem: when FND can resemble almost every common neurological phenotype, definitions can determine the answer before the differential even begins.