Development of an inpatient rehabilitation pathway for motor functional neurological disorders: Initial reflections.

BACKGROUND

Emerging research supports a primary role for rehabilitation therapy alongside psychoeducation and psychotherapy in the treatment of functional neurological disorder (FND).

OBJECTIVE

While consensus recommendations for physical therapists, occupational therapists, and speech and language pathologists treating FND have been published, specific recommendations for multidisciplinary FND care delivered on an inpatient rehabilitation unit are yet to be established.

METHODS

This report describes one inpatient rehabilitation facility's efforts to design and implement a clinical pathway for patients with acute-onset motor FND-patients recently hospitalized for work-up of new neurological symptoms subsequently deemed functional.

RESULTS

Detailed descriptions on defining admission criteria and delivering consensus- and evidence-based multidisciplinary inpatient rehabilitation are provided.

CONCLUSIONS

In the context of prospective research studies, considerably more work is needed to delineate the optimal duration and intensity of inpatient rehabilitation treatment for the management of patients with motor FND.