Inpatient Physiotherapy for Functional (Psychogenic) Gait Disorder: A Case Series of 35 Patients

Audrey Matthews, Melanie Brown, Jon Stone

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Patients with functional gait disorder (FGD) are often referred for physiotherapy, but data on their outcome is limited. The authors present a case series of 35 patients who received targeted physiotherapy for FGD at a regional neuroscience center (mean number of sessions, 11). Significant improvements in the Modified Rivermead Mobility Index (score range, 0–40) were recorded between pretreatment and posttreatment (mean pretreatment vs. posttreatment score, 20 vs. 37, respectively). Improvements also were seen in patients who had chronic symptoms, including those with symptom duration over 6 months (mean
pretreatment vs. posttreatment score, 21 vs. 33, respectively) and in patients who had no psychological intervention. These data support the hypothesis that specific physiotherapy for FGD can be surprisingly effective and further encourage the development of larger randomized trials to test efficacy.
Original languageEnglish
JournalMovement Disorders Clinical Practice
Early online date29 Jan 2016
DOIs
Publication statusE-pub ahead of print - 29 Jan 2016

Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

  • psychogenic
  • functional neurological
  • Conversion Disorder

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