WASF3 disrupts mitochondria and may mediate exercise intolerance in CFS

Re:WASF3 disrupts mitochondria and may mediate exercise into... by quenched on Wednesday August 16, 2023 @09:04PM (#37155878)

There is no evidence for functional neurological disorder, it is simply a hypothesis. As a diagnostic category it is essentially a "god of the gaps" construct. Remember also that the name is a re-branding of what used to be called conversion disorder (previously known as hysteria), that was found to be an acceptable term to patients.[1]

It's heavily published on and widely accepted as valid by neurologists, but that does not make it true.

The concept with FND is that there is no identifiable structural pathology, but that the neural circuits are dysfunctional, and that this can be fixed with things like cognitive behavioural therapy. This is typically framed to the patient as "the hardware is completely OK, there's just a problem with the software." (As most of this audience would recognise there is very little overlap between how brains work and how computers work.)

However, more advanced imaging techniques, such as 7T MRI are now showing structural abnormalities in these patients, which is a pretty fundamental problem for the above hypothesis. An attempt to rationalise this by FND proponents is made here.[2]

A recent example involves a 10yo child who developed a movement disorder following Covid.[3] Typically these would be diagnosed as functional movement disorder [4][5][6] and psychological therapy advised. However this group showed that in fact it was due to a neuroimmune pathology, with auto-antibodies forming that targeted some portion of the basal ganglia. The patient recovered completely with immunosuppression.

[1] https://www.bmj.com/content/325/7378/1449

[2] https://neurosymptoms.org/en/faq-2/can-people-with-fnd-have-...

[3] https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00415-023-11853-5

[4] https://movementdisorders.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.100...

[5] https://cp.neurology.org/content/11/5/e686

[6] https://adc.bmj.com/content/106/5/420

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Re:WASF3 disrupts mitochondria and may mediate exercise into... by ksenzee on Thursday August 17, 2023 @12:56AM (#37157421)

Thank you for this excellent synopsis. One would think rheumatologists would be curious how many people with these symptoms could be helped with immunosuppression. Alas.

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Re:WASF3 disrupts mitochondria and may mediate exercise into... by atv123 on Thursday August 17, 2023 @05:47PM (#37168587)

Said by no neurologist ever... This reflects a complete lack of understanding of the diagnostic criteria. FND is not just a diagnosis made when it doesn't fit anything else. If you actually understood the diagnosis and still felt like it was BS for some reason, it would be because you would be arguing that patients are intentionally feigning their symptoms rather than "the diagnosis just does not exist at all" or that symptoms can be explained by an immunological or other medical cause. Just ask Dr. Google about the Hoover's sign or tremor entrainment and once you understand them, the corticospinal tract, and the most basic neuroanatomy of movement, and then see how big of an idiot you look like for posting this.

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Re:WASF3 disrupts mitochondria and may mediate exercise into... by llc on Thursday August 17, 2023 @10:13PM (#37170725)

I love how you assume that the poster needs to ask Dr Google anything about these topics or that you assume what all Neurologists would say. How incredibly patronising without any logic or evidence based discussion. In fact I think your comments and assumptions just add weight to the points posted.

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