Targeting Self-Described Knowledge Gaps to Improve FND Education among Clinicians - Part 2

In part two of this series, Dr. Jeff Ratliff and Dr. Dara Albert discuss what advice they have for people who care for patients with FND.

Show citation:

Miller R, Lidstone S, Perez DL, Albert DVF. Education Research: Targeting Self-Described Knowledge Gaps to Improve Functional Neurologic Disorder Education Among Clinicians. Neurol Educ. 2025;4(3):e200239. Published 2025 Sep 5. doi:10.1212/NE9.0000000000200239

Show transcript:

Dr. Jeff Ratliff: Hi, this is Jeff Ratliff with Neurology Minute. I'm back with Dara Albert for the second neurology minute episode following our podcast episode about her paper published in Neurology® Education titled Education Research Targeting Self-Described Knowledge Gaps to Improve Functional Neurologic Disorder Education among Clinicians. Dara, what advice do you have for people who take care of patients with FND now that you've learned about the types of knowledge gaps and misunderstandings that exist in the healthcare community about FND?

Dr. Dara Albert: I think it's really important that folks recognize that FND is a real disorder, that patients are really suffering with symptoms. It's not fake, it's not feigned, it's not malingering, and that these symptoms are very real and distressing to the patients who experience them. And so that's really important for folks taking care of these patients to first and foremost to recognize. And then it's really important that we recognize that there's been an explosion in our understanding. There's been a wealth of new knowledge that has been generated about this diagnosis over the last 10 to 20 years. And so it's really important for folks that are less knowledgeable about this topic to read up and learn what we've been learning about FND and be able to approach these patients in a whole different way.

Dr. Jeff Ratliff: Dara, thank you. Check out the full podcast discussion that we had about this topic to hear more details and read the paper. It's in the September, 2025 issue of Neurology® Education. This has been the Neurology Minute Daily Briefing. Thanks for listening.