Neuroscience Recasts Functional Neurological Disorder as Brain Condition Affecting Up to 5 Million Americans
Updated
Updated · The Independent · Aug 17
Neuroscience Recasts Functional Neurological Disorder as Brain Condition Affecting Up to 5 Million Americans
3 articles · Updated · The Independent · Aug 17
Summary
Functional neurological disorder is increasingly being understood as a neurological condition in which brain networks miscommunicate, producing involuntary symptoms such as seizures, tremors and walking problems despite normal scans.
Predictive-processing research suggests the brain may over-rely on prior expectations after injury, illness, pain or stress, failing to update properly when new signals arrive and leaving symptoms physically real without structural brain damage.
Up to 5 million Americans may live with the disorder, a 2025 review found, and mortality is estimated at more than twice that of the general population.
Limited specialist care and little formal training leave many patients bounced between neurology and psychiatry, delaying diagnosis, exposing them to unnecessary procedures and reinforcing stigma that symptoms are exaggerated or imagined.
New multidisciplinary clinics and therapies including psychotherapy, physical, occupational and speech therapy aim to retrain disrupted brain networks, with researchers reporting growing evidence that recovery is possible.