Inpatient Neurorehabilitation Benefits Patients with Functional Neurological Disorder: A Single Centre Study

Area of Science:

• Neurology
• Rehabilitation Medicine
• Neurorehabilitation

Background:

• Functional Neurological Disorders (FND) represent a significant portion of neurology caseloads (10-30%).
• Evidence supports multidisciplinary rehabilitation for FND, but its impact on daily functioning requires further clarification.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the functional outcomes of patients with FND undergoing inpatient rehabilitation in a specialized neurorehabilitation unit.

Main Methods:

• Retrospective chart review of 18 FND patients admitted over two years.
• Multidisciplinary rehabilitation provided by a specialized team, including Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine (PRM) consultants.
• Functional outcomes (motor and cognitive) assessed using FIM/FAM at admission, discharge, and post-discharge follow-up.

Main Results:

• Patients showed statistically significant improvements in functional outcome measures post-rehabilitation.
• The median FIM score improvement exceeded the Minimal Clinically Important Difference (MCID), indicating clinical significance.
• Improvements were maintained at a median 10-month follow-up, with high patient satisfaction reported.

Conclusions:

• Inpatient specialist rehabilitation leads to clinically significant functional improvements in FND patients.
• Further large-scale, multi-site research is needed to identify patient subgroups that benefit most from inpatient multidisciplinary rehabilitation.