Patients with functional\/dissociative symptoms are often concerned that their diagnosis may be wrong. Especially since there is no ‘scan’ or blood test that can make the diagnosis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are many neurological problems. The commonest ones are<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2022 Stroke
\u2022 Epilepsy
\u2022 Migraine \/ Headache
\u2022 Functional \/ Dissociative Symptoms
\u2022 Multiple Sclerosis
\u2022 Brain Tumour
\u2022 Parkinsons Disease
\u2022 Myasthenia Gravis
\u2022 Motor Neuron Disease (also called Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis)
\u2022 Peripheral Neuropathy
\u2022 Nerve Root or Spinal Cord entrapment
\u2022 B12 deficiency and Thyroid disorders
\u2022 Many hundreds of others\u2026..<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the other hand there are also only a limited number of neurological symptoms. The commonest ones are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2022 Headache
\u2022 Weakness
\u2022 Sensory Symptoms
\u2022 Blackouts
\u2022 Memory \/ Cognitive symptoms
\u2022 Speech \/ Swallowing Symptoms
\u2022 Dizziness
\u2022 Visual Symptoms \u2013 reduced vision, double vision
\u2022 Neck, Back and Limb pain
\u2022 Tremors, jerks, spasms and contractures
\u2022 Bladder symptoms<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In fact there are such a limited number of neurological symptoms you can see that its quite understandable for someone with more than one neurological symptom to start to wonder if they have one of the common (or uncommon) neurological diseases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This website does not attempt to explain how a neurologist diagnoses all of these diseases. But this list emphasises that neurologists are very familiar with the conditions that you, your family or friends may have been concerned about as well as all the symptoms that you have.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You may be surprised to see FND so high up the list because few people have heard of them. In fact around 15% of all patients seen in UK neurology clinics as new patient have symptoms that are diagnosed as functional or dissociative. Around 5% of all new outpatients have symptoms of weakness<\/a>, blackouts<\/a> or numbness<\/a> that are related to FND<\/p>\n\n\n\n If your neurologist has decided that you have FND it should be for a good reason. There should be positive signs that the problems is functional, it should not just be because the scan is normal or the tests are normal. See positive signs of functional weakness<\/a>, functional sensory disturbance<\/a> and dissociative seizures<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the same way that neurologists diagnose Parkinson\u2019s disease, Migraine and Epilepsy at the bedside with a detailed history and examination (and without any tests), so too can FND be accurately diagnosed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yes, this happens quite a lot. Heres a video…<\/p>\n\n\n\nCan you have FND and another neurological condition?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n