A single-center series of 482 patients with functional motor disorders

Functional motor disorders (FMD) are common and disabling. They are known to predominantly affect women and young to middle-aged patients, although they also occur during childhood or in the elderly. Demographic and clinical characteristics of patients with FMD are poorly known, since large series of consecutive patients are scarce. Methods: In a chart review study, we retrospectively abstracted data from consecutive FMD patients who were referred to the Neurophysiology Department of the Salpe circumflex accent trie`re University Hospital between 2008 and 2016 for treatment with repeated transcranial magnetic stimulation. Results: 482 patients were included. Most patients were women (73.7%). Median age at symptoms onset was 35.5 years and symptoms were mostly characterized by acute (47.3%) or subacute (46%) onset. Only 23% of patients were active workers, while 58.3% were unemployed because of FMD. Half of the patients had functional motor weakness (n = 241) whereas the other half had movement disorders (n = 241), mainly with tremor (21.1%) or dystonia (20.5%). Among all patients, 66.4% had psychiatric comorbidity and 82.6% reported a history of trauma in the 6 months before symptoms onset. No difference was found in age or gender according to clinical phenotypes. Conclusion: This large series will contribute to better characterize FMDs.

Automated summary

Functional motor disorders (FMD) are common and disabling conditions that predominantly affect women and young to middle-aged patients. Symptoms typically include acute or subacute onset, with a high prevalence of psychiatric comorbidity and history of trauma.