🧠 What is FND?
FND is a condition where motor, sensory, or cognitive symptoms occur without an identifiable structural or organic cause. Recent research uncovers its ties to metabolic dysfunctions and disrupted brain networks, offering new hope for understanding and treatment.
💡 Metabolic and Molecular Evidence
🔍 FDG-PET Imaging: Altered glucose metabolism in regions like the prefrontal cortex, limbic system, and motor areas correlates with the symptoms of FND, emphasizing the brain's role in this condition
⚠️ Clinical Presentation of FND
FND symptoms vary widely, often mimicking other neurological disorders, making diagnosis challenging. Here's how FND manifests:
1. Motor Symptoms:
Weakness or paralysis, often inconsistent or variable.
Abnormal movements, such as tremors, jerks, or gait disturbances, that may shift in severity.
Functional seizures (non-epileptic), resembling epileptic events but without abnormal electrical brain activity.
2. Sensory Symptoms:
Numbness, tingling, or unusual sensations like burning or electric shocks, often inconsistent with nerve distributions.
Vision changes, such as blurred vision or functional blindness.
3. Cognitive Symptoms:
Memory lapses, attention difficulties, and executive dysfunction.
Emotional dysregulation, with heightened anxiety or emotional reactivity.
4. Dissociative Features:
Feelings of detachment from the body or environment, commonly reported during functional seizures.
📉 Symptoms often worsen under stress or in emotionally charged situations but can improve with distraction—a key diagnostic feature.
⚠️ The Risk of Delayed or Misdiagnosis
FND is often confused with epilepsy, stroke, or multiple sclerosis, leading to:
1. Unnecessary Treatments: Misdiagnosed patients frequently receive inappropriate treatments, including antiepileptic medications, invasive procedures, or surgeries
2. Long Diagnostic Delays: Patients may wait years for an accurate diagnosis, missing crucial early interventions
3. Stigma and Psychological Harm: Mislabeling FND as "psychosomatic" fosters stigma and dismissive care
🔑 What Can We Do?
✔️ Recognize FND's hallmark clinical signs and use diagnostic tools like FDG-PET and fMRI to confirm metabolic and network abnormalities
Mavroudis, I., Kazis, D., Kamal, F. Z., Gurzu, I. L., Ciobica, A., Pădurariu, M.,…Iordache, A. (2024). Understanding Functional Neurological Disorder: Recent Insights and Diagnostic Challenges. Int J Mol Sci, 25(8). https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms25084470
McLoughlin, C., Lee, W. H., Carson, A., & Stone, J. (2025). Iatrogenic harm in functional neurological disorder. Brain, 148(1), 27-38. https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/awae283
#FND #FunctionalDisorders #MetabolicHealth #Neurology #FDGPET #Neuroscience #PatientCare #Neuroinflammation
댓글