Neurológia pre prax 2/2016

Psychosomatic approach to functional movement disorders

Functional movement disorders (FMD) are challenging diagnoses not only for the physician, but also for the patient. The complexity of the symptoms and their complicated classification is usually causing significant uncertainty and is a burden for the relationship between patient and physician. Psychosomatic approach can significantly improve the outcome of FMD by extending the focus from the somatic level only, to psychological and social context, thus accomplishing their integration. This may enable the patient to access psychosocial factors, which may be obstructing the clinical improvement. The complexity of development and maintenance of FMD is leading to the thought of treating the patients by an interdisciplinary health team. Preliminary experience from a Swedish team with functional neurological disorders is being summarized.

Keywords: functional movement disorder, psychosomatic medicine, interdisciplinary health team.