Managing FND

Written by Professor Mark Edwards

In illness, in general, there are not many different treatment options. There are medical treatments (drugs), surgical treatments, physical treatments (physiotherapy, occupational therapy, rehabilitation) and cognitive/psychological treatments (e.g. cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), psychotherapy). There are in addition complementary medical treatments such as acupuncture, therapeutic massage, hypnosis, homoeopathy.

Given the nature of FND, it should be obvious that medical and surgical treatments are unlikely to have much of a role in treatment for most people, as these treatments have largely been developed for problems resulting from structural or degenerative neurological disease. I most commonly use medication as treatment for other medical conditions which happen to affect a person with FND. For example, I see quite a lot of people with FND who have chronic migrainous symptoms, and so I use migraine preventative medications for these people to try to help these symptoms. I see some people with FND who have depression in addition or obsessive-compulsive disorder, and so I might use medical (or more commonly cognitive) treatments to help with this problem. I see this as in general “reducing the demand on the system”. In other words that if a person with FND also has chronic migraine then successful treatment of the migraine may well make the FND improve as the overall demand on the system has been reduced by treating the other medical problem.

Sometimes treatment occurs in the setting of “multidisciplinary rehabilitation” where people with FND are often admitted to hospital for a period of time (for example 4-6 weeks) to have regular CBT, specialist physiotherapy and occupational therapy. This sort of treatment is most useful for people who have severe and complex symptoms where, for example, they would be unable to attend outpatient treatment because of the level of their disability. There other similar programs for people who have dominant symptoms of pain or fatigue.

It is difficult to give advice about complementary treatments as response is often very different between different people and there is, in general, a lack of evidence for what helps. It is also important to note that people with chronic illness in general where treatment can be difficult, as is the case for many with FND, are vulnerable to claims from unscrupulous people who just want to make money by peddling miracle cures. However, I have had patients who have told me that they have got a lot of benefit from things like acupuncture, therapeutic massage and hypnosis. It is always a good idea to go on personal recommendation when seeing such practitioners.