Practical explanations for patients with functional symptoms

Most practitioners can readily identify patients with mind-body illnesses, yet we still have valid concerns about ‘missing something serious,’ about advising the patient, or about whether such a diagnosis is as legitimate as more biomedical causes of distress.

Recent insights into the role of the CNS in creating symptoms have led to several explanatory models, including pain neuroscience education (‘echoes in a cave’), addressing autonomic dysregulation (‘faulty alarm systems’), and functional neurological disorders (‘software rather than hardware problems’).

This talk will discuss how to make a ‘positive diagnosis’ and when and how to use these explanatory models.

I will also touch on some of the interesting challenges in this emerging clinical field.