Functional Neurological Disorder Affects Up to 5 Million Americans as New Brain Models Reframe Symptoms
Updated
Updated · The Conversation · Aug 14
Functional Neurological Disorder Affects Up to 5 Million Americans as New Brain Models Reframe Symptoms
3 articles · Updated · The Conversation · Aug 14
Summary
A 2025 review estimated up to 5 million Americans live with functional neurological disorder, a condition new neuroscience increasingly describes as involuntary and physically real despite normal scans and EEGs.
Predictive-processing models suggest symptoms can arise when brain networks for movement, attention, emotion and body awareness misupdate expectations, causing weakness, tremors or seizure-like episodes without structural brain damage.
More than twice the general population mortality rate and repeated trips through emergency departments underscore the cost of delayed diagnosis, as patients are still often told they are faking, exaggerating or simply anxious.
Multidisciplinary clinics are beginning to expand, and treatment now centers on retraining disrupted brain networks through psychotherapy plus physical, occupational and speech therapy.
That shift marks a break from decades when the disorder was labeled hysteria, conversion disorder or psychogenic—terms that fueled stigma and left many patients without specialized care.