Publication date: Sep 03, 2025
Awareness and major external events can contribute to the number of FMD cases. To analyze trends in new Functional Movement Disorders (FMD) consultations and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Retrospective analysis of FMD new consultations (2014-2024) at a tertiary movement disorders clinic. Trends and the COVID-19 impact were analyzed with linear and segmented regression. Patient characteristics in the pre- and post-pandemic periods were compared. Among 14,587 new consultations, 162 were FMD (79% female, mean age at onset 44. 7 +/- 18. 3 years). FMD consultations increased slowly over time, with a marked surge after 2021. The significant rise was observed during the three years post-pandemic, followed by a return to the pre-pandemic slope. Pre and post-pandemic groups’ characteristics were almost similar. FMD consultations increased over time and significantly after the COVID-19 pandemic. This underscores the influence of increased awareness and external factors.
| Concepts | Keywords |
|---|---|
| Pandemic | awareness |
| Patient | COVID‐19 |
| Surge | functional movement disorder |
| incidence | |
| pandemics |
Semantics
| Type | Source | Name |
|---|---|---|
| disease | MESH | Functional Movement Disorders |
| disease | MESH | COVID-19 pandemic |
| disease | MESH | movement disorders |