Demographic and clinical characteristics of patients with functional motor disorders: the prospective Salpêtrière cohort

Abstract

AbstractFunctional motor disorders (FMD) are common and disabling. They are known to affect predominantly women and to start at young or middle age but to date, large case series are lacking, and demographic and clinical characteristics of patients with FMD rely on data from small cohorts. The current study aimed at describing the demographic and clinical characteristics of a large cohort of FMD patients.MethodsWe prospectively collected data from FMD patients who were referred to the Neurophysiology Department of the Pitié-Salpêtrière University Hospital between 2008 and 2016 for treatment with repeated transcranial magnetic stimulation.Results482 patients were included. There was a majority of women (73.7%) with a median age of 40 years old at TMS treatment. Median age at symptoms onset was 35.5 years old and symptoms were mostly characterized by an acute (47.3%) or subacute (46%) onset. Only 23% of patients were active workers while 58.3% were unemployed for medical reasons. Half of the patients suffered from functional motor weakness (n= 241) and the other half suffered from movement disorders (n=241), mainly represented by tremor (21.15%) and dystonia (20.5%). 33.6% had no psychiatric comorbidity and 17.4% reported no history of trauma. No significant differences were found in age or gender according to clinical phenotypes.ConclusionWe present the largest cohort of patients with FMD to date. This cohort will contribute to a better understanding of FMDs and their risk factors.