Engagement in psychological treatment for functional neurological symptoms--Barriers and solutions

This naturalistic study explores how many patients with functional neurological symptoms referred for specialist psychotherapy engage with and complete treatment, and whether routinely recorded demographic or clinical features predict engagement. Of 77 consecutive patients referred, 14.3% were considered unsuitable for therapy and excluded from between group comparisons, 23.4% did not attend any appointments, 20.8% unilaterally discontinued therapy, and 41.6% completed treatment. 66.6% of patients starting therapy completed. Older patients were more likely to engage in or complete therapy (p = .05). There were no significant differences between groups in terms of specific functional symptoms, comorbidity, predisposing, precipitating and perpetuating, or social factors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved).