Functional neurological disorder is common in neurological practice. A new approach to the positive diagnosis of this
disorder focuses on recognisable patterns of genuinely experienced symptoms and signs that show variability within
the same task and between different tasks over time. Psychological stressors are common risk factors for functional
neurological disorder, but are often absent. Four entities—functional seizures, functional movement disorders,
persistent perceptual postural dizziness, and functional cognitive disorder—show similarities in aetiology and
pathophysiology and are variants of a disorder at the interface between neurology and psychiatry. All four entities have
distinctive features and can be diagnosed with the support of clinical neurophysiological studies and other biomarkers.
The pathophysiology of functional neurological disorder includes overactivity of the limbic system, the development of
an internal symptom model as part of a predictive coding framework, and dysfunction of brain networks that gives
movement the sense of voluntariness. Evidence supports tailored multidisciplinary treatment that can involve physical
and psychological therapy approaches.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EnFs_fM6wZ-rLjU0LrMSAsTxy5hPKC7j/view?usp=drive_link
