Shipston-Sharman, O., Hoeritzauer, I., Edwards, M. et al. (3 more authors) (2019) Screening for functional neurological disorders by questionnaire. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 119. pp. 65-73. ISSN 0022-3999
Abstract
Objective: Diagnostic screening for functional neurological disorders (FNDs) continues to pose a challenge. Simple symptom counts fail clearly to discriminate patients with FND but there is increasing recognition of ‘positive’ features which are useful diagnostically during face-to-face assessments. A self-completed questionnaire evaluating specific features of FNDs would be useful for screening purposes in clinical and research settings. Methods: The Edinburgh Neurosymptoms Questionnaire (ENS) is a 30-item survey of presence and nature of: blackouts, weakness, hemisensory syndrome, memory problems, tremor, pain, fatigue, globus, multiple medical problems, and operations constructed via literature review and expert consensus. We conducted a pilot of the ENS on new general neurology clinic attendees at a large regional neuroscience centre. Patients were grouped according to consultant neurologist impression as having symptoms that were ‘Not at all’, 'somewhat’, ’Largely’ or ’Completely’ due to a functional disorder. Results: Blackouts, weakness and memory questions provided reasonable diagnostic utility (AUROC = 0.94, 0.71, 0.74 respectively) in single symptom analysis. All other symptoms lacked discriminating features. A multivariate linear model with all symptoms predicted functional classification with moderate diagnostic utility (AUROC = 0.83), specificity of 0.97, sensitivity of 0.47. Pain and blackout scores provided the most accurate predictor of functional classification. Conclusion: The ENS questionnaire provides some utility in differentiating patients presenting with functional blackouts but failed to provide diagnostic value in other types of FND, highlighting the limitations of this self-report tool.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2019 Elsevier. This is an author produced version of a paper subsequently published in Journal of Psychosomatic Research. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. Article available under the terms of the CC-BY-NC-ND licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). |
Keywords: | Functional neurological disorders; Symptom count; Screening questionnaire; Neurological symptoms; Neuropsychiatry |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Sheffield Teaching Hospitals |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 08 Mar 2019 10:36 |
Last Modified: | 19 Feb 2020 01:38 |
Published Version: | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychores.2019.02.005 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Elsevier |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1016/j.jpsychores.2019.02.005 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:143319 |