Department of Psychology, University of Central Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan.
J Pak Med Assoc. 2024 Jun;74(6):1130-1135. doi: 10.47391/JPMA.10083.
Functional neurological disorder is a condition in which a person experiences physical symptoms that cannot be fully explained by a medical condition. In Pakistan, domestic violence as well as emotional, physical and sexual abuse in children are prevalent. Despite legal and social support for victims, stigmatisation regarding seeking psychological help complicates the challenge. Some of the research culminated that patients with neurological disorder reported high level of sexual abuse and trauma. The symptomatology of functional neurological disorder is being ignored in Asian countries due to indigenous factors like poverty, lack of information on reporting abuse, poor law-enforcement and victim blaming. Functional neurological disorder can be manifested in various ways in the human body, such as blindness, paralysis, dystonia, swallowing difficulties, difficulty walking, motor symptoms affecting limbs, voice production, problems in sensory functions, problems in cognitive function, psychogenic non-epileptic seizures and even dementia, whereas differential diagnosis is established after screening for organicity. The common risk factors of functional neurological disorder may include psychosocial stressors, family history of functional neurological disorder, and significant life changes. It is critical to understand the disorder in reference to predisposing risk factors, cultural context, comorbidities and gender specification to diagnose and treat functional neurological disorder in time so that better intervention protocols could be devised to treat it efficiently.
功能性神经障碍是一种人经历身体症状，这些症状不能完全用一种医疗状况来解释的情况。在巴基斯坦，家庭暴力以及儿童的情感、身体和性虐待很普遍。尽管受害者得到法律和社会的支持，但寻求心理帮助的耻辱感使问题更加复杂。一些研究表明，患有神经障碍的患者报告了高水平的性虐待和创伤。由于贫困、缺乏关于虐待报告的信息、执法不力和指责受害者等本土因素，亚洲国家忽视了功能性神经障碍的症状。功能性神经障碍可以在人体的各种方式表现出来，如失明、瘫痪、肌张力障碍、吞咽困难、行走困难、影响四肢的运动症状、发声、感觉功能障碍、认知功能障碍、心因性非癫痫发作，甚至痴呆，而在进行器质性筛查后可以确定鉴别诊断。功能性神经障碍的常见危险因素可能包括心理社会应激源、功能性神经障碍的家族史和重大生活变化。了解易患风险因素、文化背景、合并症和性别特异性对于及时诊断和治疗功能性神经障碍至关重要，以便制定更好的干预方案来有效地治疗它。
