The FND Guide

What’s in a label?

There is  a great deal of confusion surrounding the many diagnostic terms used for the same set of functional symtposm.  One doctor may use the term Functional Neurological Disorder or Functional Movement Disorder, but then another may use Conversion Disorder or Dissociative Disorder. This leaves many patients perplexed about their diagnosis and struggling to find where they fit in.  These labels individually mean different things, however, they are all labels for the same set of symptoms.

Our preference as an organization is the term Functional Neurological Disorder (FND).  FND is also becoming the preferred term amongst specialists as the term is more neutral about the cause and mechanism of the disorder. The term FND is slowly making its way into general neurology clinics. Conversion Disorder is a term often more relatable to those patients who can clearly define a psychological trauma, which they are “converting” to their physical symptom. Because many patients do not have an identifiable psychological trauma, the Conversion Disorder label is not a one size fits all.

As an organisation we advocate for all patients with functional symptoms regardless of  what diagnostic code they were given or why they are symptomatic.