Objective: To describe the clinical characteristics and the outcomes of a cohort of patients with functional movement disorders (FMD) who attended the FMD clinic of our center and completed a 5-day rehabilitation program.
Background: FMD are common, affect mainly patients in working age and have been reported to have a bad prognosis. There is increasing evidence that specialised physiotherapy along with other approaches such as psychotherapy can be of benefit for some patients.
Method: Prospective cohort study of consecutive patients with FMD referred for a 5-day physiotherapy programme between January 2017 and January 2020. Patients were referred from a specialist FMD clinic. The treatment was based on education, movement retraining and self-management strategies following the current consensus recommendations for physiotherapy in these disorders. Clinical and demographic features were recorded. Outcomes measured with Global Clinical Impression questionnaires and Ranking scale at the end of treatment, 3-month and 6-month follow-up were assessed.
Results: A total of 39 patients were included (53,8% females, mean age 43 years). Mean disease duration was 36 months, 69,2% were not working due to health reasons and 59% required some help for activities of daily life. The 79,5% of patients rated themselves as “very much improved” or “much improved” at the end of treatment and manteined the improvement in 66,7% at 6-month follow-up. Functional independence for activities of daily life improved in 48,7 % at 6-month follow-up. Use of walking devices decreased from 78,7% to 30,3% at 6-month follow-up.
Conclusion: Specialised therapy can be of benefit in a large proportion of patients with FMD and this benefit is maintained at medium term. The results our cohort study are similar to those published in the scientific literature over the past years and support the growing evidence that suggest physiotherapy as a promising treatment for FMD. However, larger samples and randomised trials are still needed to confirm this.
To cite this abstract in AMA style:
B. Martín Rojo, L. Martínez López, P. Rada Romero, C. Vicente Torcal, M. García Ibañez, B. Borda Nuin, M. Sanz Amador, C. Delgado Suarez, M. Kurtis Urra, I. Pareés Moreno. Intensive rehabilitation program for patients with functional motor disorders: 3-years’ experience. [abstract]. Mov Disord. 2021; 36 (suppl 1). https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/intensive-rehabilitation-program-for-patients-with-functional-motor-disorders-3-years-experience/. Accessed June 15, 2025.« Back to MDS Virtual Congress 2021
MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/intensive-rehabilitation-program-for-patients-with-functional-motor-disorders-3-years-experience/