A brain disorder leaves a lasting legacy of disability, according to a study

Four out of five people whose brain condition is hidden and who causes weakness or paralysis of a limb experience lasting physical difficulties.

Research to badess the long-term effects of the disorder, called Functional Neurological Disorders (NDF), found that 80% of patients still had symptoms in the arms and legs 14 years after initial diagnosis.

The experts, who have followed the results of more than 100 patients, hope that this study – the largest of its kind – will help doctors make realistic prognoses in the future and encourage more work on treatment.

In their initial studies, 14 years ago, researchers found that NDF was as common and disabling as more well-known conditions, such as multiple sclerosis. He has, however, suffered from stigma because he is not visible on conventional brain scans.

Doctors often describe this problem as a "software" problem of the brain rather than a "hardware" problem – a condition related to how the brain processes information, rather than a physical defect in its structure.

For the follow-up study, patients completed questionnaires to badess their physical and psychiatric symptoms, quality of life, and perception of their illness.

Their responses revealed that levels of physical disability and distress remained high, even after 14 years, leading to persistent and sometimes disabling problems.

Researchers may be reluctant to diagnose FND for fear of being mistaken. But the team discovered that errors were rare and that this should not prevent them from making a diagnosis using clinical signs, even if the tests are normal.

The study was conducted by the Universities of Edinburgh and Groningen in the Netherlands and is published in the journal Brain.

Professor Jon Stone, of the Edinburgh Center for Clinical Brain Sciences, said that the perception of FND has changed dramatically in the last 20 years, but that doctors still risk patients "imagine" or "attack" the disease.

"Fortunately, with better research and better treatment, these attitudes are changing.This study shows how important it is for neurologists to remain involved in the long-term management of patients in order to direct treatment and detect symptoms." other neurological conditions, which can rarely occur years after the beginning of pregnancy. " FND.

"This should also help clinicians to establish a more realistic prognosis for patients with NSD when it causes limb weakness and underlines the importance of active and targeted treatment that many of these patients did not have any. "

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