Misdiagnosis of an underlying medical condition as Conversion Disorder/Functional Neurological Disorder (CD/FND) still occurs

Undetected medical conditions can be misdiagnosed as Conversion Disorder/Functional Neurological Disorder(CD/FND). Although misdiagnosis is considered a rare occurrence since the introduction of improved diagnostic imaging procedures,(1-3) there is no recent estimate of this. We therefore
conducted a study to explore how often a medical condition was misdiagnosed as CD/FND in a sample of consecutive outpatients referred for treatment to the Clinical Centre of Excellence for Body Mind and Health (CLGG); a tertiary mental health centre for Somatic Symptom Disorders and Related Disorders (SSRD). Patients had been diagnosed with CD/FND elsewhere. We systematically explored the type and duration of CD/FND, psychiatric and somatic comorbidity, early childhood trauma, childhood sexual abuse, stressful life events, use of medication, family history of CD/FND and demographic factors in all patients. We evaluated which of these predictors were associated with misdiagnosis.