REFERENCE LIBRARY
FND Reference Library Index
This detailed index maps practical, symptom-specific material that is easier to use as a reference than as part of a course. It currently has four collections:
- Understanding an FND Diagnosis explains positive diagnosis, investigations, and the relationship between assessment results and everyday function.
- Symptom-Specific Diagnostic Signs explains positive diagnostic signs and criteria, their limits, and how contributors could demonstrate them with accessible media. The collection currently covers 17 symptom presentations.
- Symptom Recovery and Management Techniques collects research-informed rehabilitation, treatment and self-management techniques for the same 17 presentations. Its master technique list can be browsed by symptom or by technique name.
- Common Co-occurring Conditions explains nine related conditions or symptom groups, their interactions with FND and available recovery or management options. It does not add them to the 17 FND presentation categories.
The diagnostic and recovery collections answer different questions. A diagnostic sign helps a qualified clinician establish or explain a diagnosis. A recovery technique is an approach that may be tried after appropriate assessment. A technique working or not working does not confirm or disprove FND.
Co-occurring conditions and symptom groups
- Migraine Alongside FND
- Persistent Headache Alongside FND
- Tinnitus Alongside FND
- Persistent Pain Alongside FND
- Fibromyalgia Alongside FND
- Fatigue and Post-Activity Worsening Alongside FND
- Insomnia and Sleep Difficulties Alongside FND
- Autonomic Symptoms Alongside FND
- Irritable Bowel Syndrome Alongside FND
PPPD remains in its existing collection; it is linked rather than duplicated.
Which symptoms refer to which category?
A symptom may appear in more than one row when its appearance, severity or event context changes what should be assessed or tried. The category is not chosen from one word alone. For example, apparent facial droop may reflect overactive pulling or true weakness; partial limb weakness and complete paralysis require different starting points; and immobility during a functional seizure follows the seizure-event pathway unless a separate motor symptom persists outside it.
| Category | Commonly refers to | Important overlap or boundary |
|---|---|---|
| Functional limb weakness (recovery overview; detailed techniques) | Partial arm, hand, leg or foot weakness; heaviness; reduced grip; foot drag; limb giving way | Complete or near-complete loss is paralysis; walking expression may also be gait; face uses the facial page |
| Functional tremor (distractibility; entrainment; diagnostic inventory; recovery overview; detailed techniques) | Rhythmic or oscillating shaking of a limb, head, trunk or voice | Discrete non-rhythmic jerks and whole seizure-like events use their own assessments; limb techniques need adaptation for head, trunk or voice tremor |
| Functional jerks or myoclonus (EEG–EMG assessment; diagnostic inventory; recovery overview; detailed techniques) | Brief non-rhythmic jerks, isolated or in clusters | Rhythmic tremor, patterned dystonia and larger episodic events differ |
| Functional Tics and Tic-Like Symptoms (eight detailed recovery and support pages) (recovery) | Involuntary motor movements and vocal/phonic sounds, words or phrases | Not synonymous with jerks or speech impairment; primary tic disorders can coexist; no single feature decides the diagnosis |
| Functional dystonia (recovery overview; detailed techniques) | Fixed, sustained or intermittent patterned pulling, twisting or posturing | Face- or jaw-dominant pulling uses the facial page; weakness and jerks require their own techniques |
| Functional gait disorder (recovery overview; detailed techniques) | Dragging, knee buckling, hesitant or slow walking, swaying, crouching, unusual standing or walking balance | May overlap weakness; sudden fall without definite blackout may be a drop attack; persistent dizziness may be PPPD |
| Functional seizures (recovery overview; detailed techniques) | Convulsive, still/unresponsive, altered-awareness, sensory, autonomic or mixed seizure-like events | Immobility belongs here when it is part of the stereotyped event; separate persistent limb paralysis uses the paralysis page |
| Functional sensory symptoms (recovery overview; detailed techniques) | Numbness, altered touch, tingling, burning, hypersensitivity or altered bodily sensation | Dissociative disconnection is not automatically a sensory sign; special senses need their own assessment |
| Functional visual symptoms (recovery overview; nine detailed pages) | Functional visual loss, blur, field loss, double vision or assessed functional photophobia | Migraine, eye disease and generic sensory overload remain different or coexisting possibilities |
| Functional speech and voice symptoms (recovery overview; eleven detailed pages) | Stuttering, slurred or blocked speech, mutism, dysphonia, aphonia, volume, pitch or accent change | Cognitive word finding, facial mechanics and swallowing each require their matching assessment |
| Functional swallowing symptoms and globus (recovery overview; eleven detailed pages) | Difficulty swallowing food, drink or saliva; initiation or sticking difficulty; lump or tightness between swallows | Mouth seal may overlap facial symptoms; cough, choking and airway symptoms require safety assessment |
| Functional cough and upper-airway symptoms (recovery) | Assessed functional cough, throat clearing or laryngeal/upper-airway presentation | Does not mean every chronic cough or breathlessness is functional |
| Functional Cognitive Disorder (recovery overview; thirteen detailed pages) | Memory, attention, language access, processing speed and executive function; recognition/nonverbal or imagery complaints require individual assessment | Speech-motor block and event-related altered awareness use other pathways; many other conditions cause cognitive symptoms. FCD background and evidence limits |
| Persistent postural-perceptual dizziness (recovery; thirteen detailed pages) | Persistent non-spinning dizziness, rocking, swaying, unsteadiness or visually induced symptoms meeting PPPD criteria | Not every brief dizzy spell, faint, balance problem or sudden fall is PPPD |
| Functional facial symptoms (recovery; ten detailed pages) | Facial pulling or spasm, apparent droop, assessed weakness, eye closure or ptosis, lip/jaw/tongue movement or mouth-seal difficulty | Technique follows the actual mechanism: overactivity, weakness, eye closure, mouth control, speech or swallowing |
| Functional paralysis (recovery overview; seven detailed pages) | Complete or near-complete voluntary limb movement loss, including assessed functional hemiplegia or paraplegia | A severe limb-weakness presentation, not a proven separate mechanism; seizure-confined immobility follows the seizure plan |
| Functional drop attacks (recovery overview; seven detailed pages) | Sudden falls from standing or walking without definite blackout, often with little warning and rapid recovery | “Drop attack” is descriptive; syncope, epilepsy, cataplexy, vestibular events, gait and weakness require differentiation |
Every numbered diagnostic and recovery page now begins with Refers to and a scope boundary. When a symptom fits more than one category, use the diagnostic and recovery material for the observed appearance. If no validated sign or appearance-specific recovery evidence exists, the page should say so rather than borrow a technique from a different phenotype.
[!IMPORTANT] These pages provide general education, not individual diagnosis or treatment. New, severe, injured or substantially changed symptoms need appropriate medical assessment and should not automatically be assumed to be FND.
How evidence is labelled
The project separates trial evidence, professional consensus, emerging evidence and community-reported practice. A long list does not mean that every technique has equally strong support or is suitable for every person.
Community practices are included only when the same basic idea appears in at least two independent public accounts or community resources, the source is identified, and a safety check does not reveal a clear reason to exclude it. They remain lived experience, not proof of effectiveness.
Contributing and review
Clinical reviewers can help check whether technique descriptions are accurate, appropriately limited and safe. People living with FND and supporters can help make the wording usable and identify missing day-to-day questions. Media contributors can propose captioned videos, diagrams or printable instructions after the written content has clinical and accessibility review.
Please follow the project’s repository change and page maintenance policy, research and citation policy, evidence standard, safety and editorial rules, and accessibility standards.
Reference library reviewed: September 14, 2026 · Functional tremor, functional jerks, functional dystonia and functional gait detailed recovery pages added · Clinical, lived-experience and accessibility review pending
Functional cough and upper-airway symptoms: ten detailed recovery pages — all ten original entries expanded one-to-one, plus a collection overview. Assessed cough responses, breathing coordination, everyday care and coexisting conditions; professional-consensus evidence with diagnostic and airway-safety boundaries. Added September 20, 2026; human review pending.