What is FND?
Functional Neurology Disorder is a very common reason patients visit a Neurologist. The symptoms can be extremely concerning and worrying, the symptoms can be as disabling as Multiple Sclerosis and Parkinson ’s disease. With many disorders of the nervous system such as Multiple Sclerosis, for unknown reasons the immune system attacks peoples own body, evidence of this damage can be seen on MRI scans.
With Functional Neurology Disorder the functioning of the nervous system is interrupted for reasons we do not yet know why. As there is no evidence of any disease on MRI scans or pathology tests, patients are said to be making up the symptoms or are anxious. This means patients are left many years with troublesome and worrying symptoms, knowing themselves that it is not just anxiety causing the symptoms. Functional Neurology Disorder is a real condition that causes suffering for thousands of patients.
We know the brain is one of the most complex organs in the universe, when it goes wrong it can be difficult to correct. Many patients with Functional Neurology Disorder feel anxious, suicidal and feel there quality of life has reduced severely.
We want to initially raise awareness of this debilitating and life altering condition. We want general practitioners (GPs) to recognise this disorder as a real condition. By understanding that once serious conditions have been ruled out, if neurological symptoms are continuing, this is not a patient making up symptoms, this should not be classified as anxiety. Of course anxiety may play a role also which might need to be addressed, but once Functional Neurological Disorder has been diagnosed more information and help should be provided to the patient.
Secondly we want to continue to fund vital research in this neglected and underfunded condition. Nobody should have a life of suffering and pain. By better understanding the workings of the brain and the nervous system, we should be able to manage the symptoms in a better way. It is very ambitious and will be very hard work, we need to work together as a team. In all honesty we are ambitious enough to say we will work to try and completely cure this disorder. We will not stop our charity until we have completely understood and cured this disorder. Many professionals say this is not possible to cure this disorder, we disagree and we are motivated enough to investigate this terrible disorder and resolve suffering for thousands of patients.
We believe it simply is not enough that patients with severe disability are offered physiotherapy to resolve a lot of the functional symptoms such as paralysis. It might take months for the patient to recover and begin walking again, for the brain to malfunction again and the same treatment plan has to be endured again. By better understanding what is going wrong in the brain, we want to live in a world where we have much better treatment for this disorder and to potentially reverse this disorder completely.
