{"id":613821,"date":"2026-04-17T22:42:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T22:42:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/613821\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T22:42:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T22:42:10","slug":"calls-for-more-awareness-of-functional-neurological-disorder-to-reduce-diagnosis-delays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/613821\/","title":{"rendered":"Calls for more awareness of functional neurological disorder to reduce diagnosis delays"},"content":{"rendered":"

For 15 years, Stephanie Russel-Farnham had seizures, weakness in her limbs and sharp stabbing pains without knowing what the cause was.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It was only in the past five years that she learned she has functional neurological disorder (FND), a condition where signals between the brain and different parts of the body are disrupted.<\/p>\n

“I would have had hundreds of seizures, and no-one had ever given me a name for it,” she said.<\/p>\n

“The problem is most people don\u2019t know what FND is, even paramedics, even nurses, even doctors.”<\/p>\n

The condition is often life-altering, with symptoms including paralysis, functional seizures and difficulties with movement.<\/p>\n

But people like Ms Russel-Farnham say they have been misdiagnosed numerous times, with many spending years trying to get answers.<\/p>\n

‘Not the same person I used to be’<\/p>\n

Tremors, pain and fatigue have been a part of Majella Brasseaux’s day-to-day life since her early 20s.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Majella Brasseaux was diagnosed with functional neurological disorder in her 50s after years of searching for answers. (Supplied: Majella Brasseaux)<\/p>\n

After countless appointments with specialists, she was diagnosed with FND eight years ago.<\/p>\n

Ms Brasseaux said she was misdiagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis and myasthenia gravis after the onset of her symptoms.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“They had no idea what it was,” she said.<\/p>\n

An estimated 21,500 Australians lived with FND in 2024, according to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Majella Brasseaux had to travel from Coffs Harbour to Sydney to see a neurologist. (Supplied: Majella Brasseaux)<\/p>\n

“It’s a dysfunctional neurological disorder because you cannot function like a normal human being when it’s bad,” Ms Brasseaux said.<\/p>\n

“That’s the hardest part; I’m not the same person I used to be.<\/p>\n

“Some days I wake up and I go, ‘wouldn’t it be nice to wake up and never have to have pain again.'”Symptoms can resemble stroke, epilepsy<\/p>\n

Neuroscience Research Australia associate professor Emma Devenney said the path to a diagnosis could be “frustrating”, with accessing a neurologist difficult for many patients.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This was the case for Ms Brasseaux, who had to travel to Sydney as there was not a neurologist in her home of Coffs Harbour.<\/p>\n

“In the right hands of a neurologist with clinical experience the diagnosis is much more straightforward,” Dr Devenney, who is also a neurologist, said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Symptoms can look very much like a stroke for example, or epilepsy, so often people may start down this initial path and it\u2019s not perhaps until later on that some signals come out that … it’s functional neurological disorder.”<\/p>\n

FND Australia Support Services president Katherine Gill said early intervention was critical to preventing the condition becoming a chronic, severe and permanent disability for patients.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Katherine Gill says getting a diagnosis in a timely manner is important to ensure patients have a good outcome. (ABC News: Keith Blackburn)<\/p>\n

“When people get a diagnosis late and then they don’t get access to early treatment it means that people are getting really disabled,” she said.<\/p>\n

“We need diagnosis as soon as they get symptom onset and then they need to access treatment straight away in order to get good outcomes.”<\/p>\n

Dr Gill, who is an occupational therapist and lives with FND, said there should be more education about the condition.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

“A lot of health professionals will finish their degrees never having heard of this condition,” she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“We need the training, the awareness, the education and then the services, and we need services to be funded.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Dr Emma Devenney says people can experience difficulties in accessing specialists for Functional Neurological Disorder diagnosis and treatment.\u00a0 (Supplied)<\/p>\n

Dr Devenney said while FND was emerging as a field of interest, funding was needed to build clinical networks to help achieve better outcomes for patients.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“There have been significant improvements made \u2026 [but] there is still quite a long way to go and I think that education [and] awareness needs to be at all levels, not just amongst neurologists,” Dr Devenney said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“What we have at the moment is not satisfactory, we really need a clear plan to improve that for the patients.”<\/p>\n

Ms Russel-Farnham said a diagnosis after years of uncertainty had brought relief and helped her feel less alone.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s also a reminder of how many people are living with such significant pain, immobility, disability and how it completely changes the person you feel you are,” she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For 15 years, Stephanie Russel-Farnham had seizures, weakness in her limbs and sharp stabbing pains without knowing what…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":613822,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[2687,64,63,234127,2673,297975,297976,168442,137,95343,297977,241036,167324],"class_list":{"0":"post-613821","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-access","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-brain-disorders","12":"tag-diagnosis","13":"tag-fnd","14":"tag-fnd-australia-support-services","15":"tag-functional-neurological-disorder","16":"tag-health","17":"tag-misdiagnosis","18":"tag-neurological-disorder","19":"tag-neurologist","20":"tag-seizures"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613821","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=613821"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613821\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/613822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=613821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=613821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=613821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}