Cited by 62Psychosomatic Disorders and Their TreatmentsCardiovascular Syncope and Autonomic DisordersHeart Rate Variability and Autonomic Control

Autonomic, endocrine, and inflammation profiles in functional neurological disorder: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Open access
Paredes-Echeverri, Sara, Maggio, Julie, Bègue, Indrit, Pick, Susannah, Nicholson, Timothy R., Perez, David L.·2022·The Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: Functional neurological disorder (FND) is a core neuropsychiatric condition. To date, promising yet inconsistently identified neural circuit profiles have been observed in patients with FND, suggesting that gaps remain in our systems-level neurobiological understanding. As such, other important physiological variables, including autonomic, endocrine, and inflammation findings, need to be contextualized for a more complete mechanistic picture. METHODS: The investigators conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of available case-control and cohort studies of FND. PubMed, PsycINFO, and Embase databases were searched for studies from January 1, 1900, to September 1, 2020, that investigated autonomic, endocrine, and inflammation markers in patients with FND. Sixty-six of 2,056 screened records were included in the review, representing 1,699 patients; data from 20 articles were used in the meta-analysis. RESULTS: Findings revealed that children and adolescents with FND, compared with healthy control subjects (HCs), have increased resting heart rate (HR); there is also a tendency toward reduced resting HR variability in patients with FND across the lifespan compared with HCs. In adults, peri-ictal HR differentiated patients with functional seizures from those with epileptic seizures. Other autonomic and endocrine profiles for patients with FND were heterogeneous, with several studies highlighting the importance of individual differences. CONCLUSIONS: Inflammation research in FND remains in its early stages. Moving forward, there is a need for the use of larger sample sizes to consider the complex interplay between functional neurological symptoms and behavioral, psychological, autonomic, endocrine, inflammation, neuroimaging, and epigenetic/genetic data. More research is also needed to determine whether FND is mechanistically (and etiologically) similar or distinct across phenotypes.

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Crossref · 10.1176/appi.neuropsych.21010025

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  • Hyperarousal is common in FND, exemplified by the observation of panic attack without panic in people with functional seizures, as well as increased sympathetic tone and abnormal startle responses in FND populations.

    “Hyperarousal is common in FND; this is exemplified by the observation of 'panic attack without panic' in people with functional seizures, as well as increased sympathetic tone and abnormal startle responses in FND populations.21,46,164,165”

    From A new science of emotion: implications for functional neurological disorder (2022) · cites this paper as [46]

    The Discussion (page unavailable) reports increased autonomic arousal and more consistent markers of increased sympathetic tone in children and adolescents with FND, but emphasizes heterogeneous findings in adults. Results > Autonomic Findings (page unavailable) reports an increased startle-response probability in one study of functional movement disorder and no group difference in another. The paper does not report the cited observation of a ‘panic attack without panic’ in people with functional seizures, so it does not support that example or the unqualified generalization across FND populations. (LLM, conf=0.87)

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Research works printed but not linked: 5

  1. [50]Sanyal S, Chattopadhyay PK, Biswas D. Electro-dermal arousal and self-appraisal in patients with somatization disorder. Indian J Clin Psychol. 1998; 25(2): 144– 8.
  2. [74]Pankova OF, Keshokov AA. Autonomic-humoral regulation in neuroses and neurotic development of the personality. Soviet Neurology & Psychiatry. 1983; 16(3): 3– 14.
  3. [80]Khanam M, Azad MAK, Ullah MA, Ahsan MS, Bari W, Islam SN, Serum immunoglobulin profiles of conversion disorder patients. Germ J Psychiatry. 2008; 11(4): 141– 5.
  4. [86]Kugu N, Bolayir E, Akyuz A, Ersan E. Muscle enzymes, blood gases and quantitative EEG in differential diagnosis of generalized tonic-clonic seizures and conversive non-epileptic seizures. Neurol Psychiatry Brain Res. 2004; 11(3): 133– 6.
  5. [92]Allendorfer JB, Nenert R, Hernando KA, DeWolfe JL, Pati S, Thomas AE, FMRI response to acute psychological stress differentiates patients with psychogenic non-epileptic seizures from healthy controls - A biochemical and neuroimaging biomarker study. NeuroImage Clinical. 2019; 24: 101967. 31446314 PMC6718876

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Authors
Paredes-Echeverri, S., Maggio, J., Bègue, I., Pick, S., Nicholson, T. R., & Perez, D. L.
Affiliations
University of Geneva (CH)
Corresponding author
Paredes-Echeverri, Sara
Venue
The Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences
Published
2022-02
Volume
34
Issue
1
Pages
30-43
ISSN
  • 0895-0172 (ISSN-L)
  • 1545-7222
OpenAlex
W3175646162
Cited by
62
References
94
Citations by year
2026: 14 · 2025: 13 · 2024: 21 · 2023: 9 · 2022: 5
FWCI
1.56
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Journal of Neuropsychiatry (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Archive ouverte UNIGE (University of Geneva) (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
  • Archive ouverte UNIGE (University of Geneva) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
Funders
  • Medical Research Council (MR/V032771/1)
  • National Institute of Mental Health (K23MH111983)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Psychosomatic Disorders and Their Treatments
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Surgery › Cardiovascular Syncope and Autonomic Disorders
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine › Heart Rate Variability and Autonomic Control
Keywords
conversion disorder, autonomic dysfunction, endocrine markers, inflammation, resting heart rate, heart rate variability, psychogenic non-epileptic seizures, epileptic seizures, children and adolescents, individual differences, neurobiological mechanisms
MeSH terms
Adolescent, Conversion Disorder, Humans, Inflammation, Nervous System Diseases, Seizures, Cohort Studies, Neuroimaging

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