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Updated: Jul 5, 2025
Cerebellar Regional Dissection for Molecular Analysis
Published on: December 5, 2020
Functional ataxia in a specialized ataxia center
Luíza Alves Corazza1, Augusto Bragança Reis Rosa1, Thiago Yoshinaga Tonholo Silva1
1Division of General Neurology and Ataxia Unit, Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, Federal University of São Paulo (UNIFESP), São Paulo, Brazil.
Background:
Functional gait is a disorder of ambulation and balance internally inconsistent and incongruent with the phenotypic spectrum of neurological gait disorders.
Objectives:
This paper aims to clinically characterize patients with functional ataxia.
Methods:
Patients with functional ataxia were analyzed out of 1350 patients in Ataxia Unit of the Federal University of São Paulo circa 2008 to 2022.
Results:
Thirteen patients (1 %) presented with functional ataxia; all female, with a median age of 34.8 years. Six (46.2 %) had psychiatric comorbidities and 7 (53.8 %) endorsed a trigger. Diagnostic features included variable base and stride (100 %), "huffing and puffing" (30.7 %), knee-buckling (30.7 %), uneconomic posturing (38.5 %), tightrope walking (23 %), and trembling gait (15.4 %). Remarkably, no falls were reported in any case. 53.8 % recovered fully or partially, despite no treatment.
Conclusions:
Variability of base and stride are universal features of functional ataxia, yet falls are inconspicuous. Functional Ataxia is rare even in a specialized ataxia center.
