People with intellectual disability (also called learning disability) can be especially vulnerable to FND symptoms. Up to 1 in 8 people with mild intellectual disability have epilepsy, and a third to a half of people with moderate to profound intellectual disability have epilepsy.

Since epilepsy is a strong risk factor for FND then it’s not surprising that functional seizures are also common in this group. Around 1 in 10 people with functional seizures have an intellectual disability. The treatment of functional seizures is, of course, similar in people with intellectual disabilit,y but it may be helpful to have different ways of helping people understand what is happening.

I’m grateful to Katy Morton, Speech and Language Therapy Assisant in Edinburgh and Dr Jane Stuart, Associate Specialist in Intellectual Disability and Psychiatry, for collaborating on this EASY READING factsheet for people with intellectual disability and functional seizures. You can download it using the button the right or here. You can see the contents below. We hope it is helpful and welcome feedback.

This additional EASY READING factsheet about FND for people with intellectual disability or those needing easy reading material covers FND in more general terms describing the different symptoms and treatment.

Many thanks to Dr Isobel Williams, at Newcastle Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle, UK and Dr Sarah Montrose both Clinical Psychologists for making this.

Information for carers

If you are a carer of someone with intellectual disability, then I hope the other pages on this site may give some insights. It may be harder for someone with intellectual disability to engage with rehabilitation that involves written material or more complex ideas. But the principles of treatment are the same, and you can help, for example by learning techniques that people use to gain control of seizures and practising them with the person affected.