The DOI matches its Crossref record; 54 of the 54 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Functional neurological disorders: the neurological assessment as treatment
Open accessAbstract
The neurologist's role in patients with functional disorders has traditionally been limited to making the diagnosis, excluding a ‘disease’ and pronouncing the symptoms to be ‘non-organic’ or ‘psychogenic’. In this article, I argue that there are multiple opportunities during routine assessment of a patient with a functional disorder for the neurologist to take the lead with treatment. These opportunities occur throughout history taking, during the examination and, with greatest potential for treatment, at the end of the consultation. Elements of the neurologist's discussion that may be most useful include (a) emphasis that symptoms are genuine, common and potentially reversible; (b) explanation of the positive nature of the diagnosis (ie, not a diagnosis of exclusion); (c) simple advice about distraction techniques, self-help techniques and sources of information; (d) referral on to appropriate physiotherapy and/or psychological services; and (e) offering outpatient review. I also discuss how new diagnostic criteria for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-5 and changes proposed for International Classification of Diseases may facilitate changes that allow neurologists to bring their management of patients with functional disorders in line with other multidisciplinary neurological disorders in the outpatient clinic.
Overview
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
The cited source says what the claim attributes to it.
In the citing paper
“symptoms amplify with attention, and they diminish when attention is drawn away from them (and toward something else) [19,51,53].”
From Illness-Promoting Psychological Processes in Children and Adolescents with Functional Neurological Disorder (2023) · cites this paper as [53]
The cited source says what the claim attributes to it.
In the citing paper
“symptoms amplify with attention, and they diminish when attention is drawn away from them (and toward something else) [19,51,53].”
From Illness-Promoting Psychological Processes in Children and Adolescents with Functional Neurological Disorder (2023) · cites this paper as [53]
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Citations
Cites
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders
American Psychiatric Association (2013) · doi:10.1176/appi.books.9780890425596 · Cited by 116,369
The functional gastrointestinal disorders and the Rome III process
Drossman, D. A. (2006) · Gastroenterology · doi:10.1053/j.gastro.2006.03.008 · Cited by 2,416
A Bayesian account of ‘hysteria’
Edwards, M. J., Adams, R. A., Brown, H., Parees, I., & Friston, K. J. (2012) · Brain · doi:10.1093/brain/aws129 · Cited by 825
Medically unexplained symptoms
Nimnuan, C., Hotopf, M., & Wessely, S. (2001) · Journal of Psychosomatic Research · doi:10.1016/s0022-3999(01)00223-9 · Cited by 622
Who is referred to neurology clinics?—The diagnoses made in 3781 new patients
Stone, J., Carson, A. J., Duncan, R., Roberts, R., Warlow, C., Hibberd, C., Coleman, R. J., Cull, R. E., Murray, G. D., Pelosi, A. J., et al. (2010) · Clinical Neurology and Neurosurgery · doi:10.1016/j.clineuro.2010.05.011 · Cited by 538
Self-citationCognitive-behavioral therapy for psychogenic nonepileptic seizures
Goldstein, L. H., Chalder, T., Chigwedere, C., Khondoker, M. R., Moriarty, J., Toone, B., & Mellers, J. D. C. (2010) · Neurology · doi:10.1212/wnl.0b013e3181e39658 · Cited by 499
Physiotherapy for functional motor disorders: a consensus recommendation
Nielsen, G., Stone, J., Matthews, A., Brown, M., Sparkes, C., Farmer, R., Masterton, L., Duncan, L., Winters, A., Daniell, L., et al. (2014) · Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery & Psychiatry · doi:10.1136/jnnp-2014-309255 · Cited by 427
Self-citationThe prognosis of functional (psychogenic) motor symptoms: a systematic review
Gelauff, J., Stone, J., Edwards, M., & Carson, A. (2014) · Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry · doi:10.1136/jnnp-2013-305321 · Cited by 368
Self-citationThe syndrome of fixed dystonia: an evaluation of 103 patients
Schrag, A. E., Trimble, M., Quinn, N. P., & Bhatia, K. P. (2004) · Brain · doi:10.1093/brain/awh262 · Cited by 351
Functional (psychogenic) movement disorders: merging mind and brain
Edwards, M. J., & Bhatia, K. P. (2012) · The Lancet Neurology · doi:10.1016/s1474-4422(11)70310-6 · Cited by 314
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Gait disorders in adults and the elderly
Pirker, W., & Katzenschlager, R. (2016) · Wiener klinische Wochenschrift · doi:10.1007/s00508-016-1096-4 · Cited by 671
Popkirov, S., Staab, J. P., & Stone, J. (2018) · Practical Neurology · doi:10.1136/practneurol-2017-001809 · Cited by 334
Self-citationA framework for understanding the pathophysiology of functional neurological disorder
Drane, D. L., Fani, N., Hallett, M., Khalsa, S. S., Perez, D. L., & Roberts, N. A. (2020) · CNS Spectrums · doi:10.1017/s1092852920001789 · Cited by 220
Management of functional neurological disorder
Gilmour, G. S., Nielsen, G., Teodoro, T., Yogarajah, M., Coebergh, J. A., Dilley, M. D., Martino, D., & Edwards, M. J. (2020) · Journal of Neurology · doi:10.1007/s00415-020-09772-w · Cited by 169
Occupational therapy consensus recommendations for functional neurological disorder
Nicholson, C., Edwards, M. J., Carson, A. J., Gardiner, P., Golder, D., Hayward, K., Humblestone, S., Jinadu, H., Lumsden, C., MacLean, J., et al. (2020) · Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery & Psychiatry · doi:10.1136/jnnp-2019-322281 · Cited by 159
Self-citation
Metadata
- Authors
- Stone, J.
- Affiliations
- Western General Hospital (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Stone, Jon
- ORCID
- Stone, Jon
- Venue
- Practical Neurology
- Publisher
- BMJ
- Published
- 2015-12-29
- Volume
- 16
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 7-17
- ISSN
- 1474-7758 (ISSN-L)
- 1474-7766
- OpenAlex
- W2230375827
- Cited by
- 157
- References
- 54
- Citations by year
- 2026: 17 · 2025: 14 · 2024: 9 · 2023: 21 · 2022: 19 · 2021: 23 · 2020: 15 · 2019: 13 · 2018: 7 · 2017: 12 · 2016: 7
- FWCI
- 1.19
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Practical Neurology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- HighWire Press Open Archive (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- NHS Health Scotland
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Psychosomatic Disorders and Their Treatments
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine › Cardiovascular Syncope and Autonomic Disorders
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Research
- Keywords
- conversion disorder, neurological assessment, diagnosis of exclusion, patient education, distraction techniques, self-help, referral to physiotherapy, DSM-5 diagnostic criteria, multidisciplinary management
- MeSH terms
- Humans, Nervous System Diseases, Neurologic Examination
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
