[Overview of care management principles in functional neurological disorders]

Abstract

After more than twenty years of academic research on functional neurological disorders (FND) throughout the world, a standardized care management strategy has emerged to allow a more adapted care offer to patients with FND, as close as possible to their experience and their needs. With regard to this special issue on FND in collaboration with L'Encéphale and at the initiative of the Neuropsychiatry section of the AFPBN (French Association of Biological Psychiatry and Neuropsychopharmacology), we would like to suggest a summary of all topics discussed in more detail in each article of this special issue, in order to facilitate its reading. We therefore cover the following themes: the initial contact with a patient with FND, the diagnostic process in favor of a positive diagnosis, the physiological, neural and psychological basis of FND, the diagnostic announcement (and its intangibles), the therapeutic patient education in FND, the general principles of therapeutic management through a personalized and multidisciplinary care program, and the validated therapeutic tools available according to the symptoms identified. This article is designed to be of broad interest on FND, supported by tables and figures showing the key points of all these steps, to keep an educational purpose at most. We hope that through this special issue, each health professional will be able to grasp this knowledge and this framework of care as easily and quickly as possible, in order to participate in the standardization of the care offer.

Keywords: Conversion; Functional neurological disorder; Hysteria; Hystérie; Traitement; Treatment; Trouble neurologique fonctionnel.