A first-of-its-kind study by the National Rehabilitation Centre (NRC) at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust (NUH) has demonstrated how specialist inpatient rehabilitation can result in significant and lasting improvements for FND patients.
‘Inpatient Neurorehabilitation Benefits Patients with Functional Neurological Disorder: A Single Centre Study’ has been co-authored by a number of highly experienced rehabilitation clinicians including Professor Manoj Sivan, Dr Javvad Haider and Dr Weaam Ibraheem, and is the first original clinical study to come from the country’s brand-new NRC.
Functional Neurological Disorders (FND) describes a variety of issues experienced by patients where the brain is not sending and receiving information correctly to the body. This can result in a variety of neurological symptoms including leg or arm weakness.
Whilst FND are common and it is recognised that multidisciplinary rehabilitation can help, clinicians are often hesitant to admit this cohort of patients to neurorehabilitation units as the long-term functional gains in everyday activities has not been clear.
However, this new study of 18 patients who received specialist inpatient rehabilitation from a multidisciplinary team for approximately three months has demonstrated clear results.
Professor Manoj Sivan, Clinical Research Lead for the NRC, said:
“There is still considerable stigma around investing resources for FND patients as many clinicians feel their rehabilitation potential is limited, and that these patients cannot be managed alongside patients with other neurological conditions in neurorehabilitation units.
“We were pleasantly surprised that patients in our study showed patients’ ability to function in daily life had improved significantly, and that these improvements were maintained when we followed up 10 months after their discharge.”
In addition to these findings, patients also reported high satisfaction with their rehabilitation care at NUH, with 83% confirming they were ‘extremely satisfied’ or ‘satisfied’.
Dr Javvad Haider, Rehabilitation Medicine Lead for the NRC, said: “What is needed next is to explore which types of FND patients benefit the most from such multidisciplinary specialist rehabilitation.
“Thank you to all the patients who took part, and all our NUH colleagues who treated these patients and contributed to this important piece of research. This publication is the first of many to come from the NRC.”
The findings of the study were first shared by Professor Manoj Sivan and Dr Javvad Haider in their roles with the British Society of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine (BSPRM) in a special workshop at the European Society for Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine (ESPRM) 2026 Congress held in Krakow, Poland in March.
The study has now been published in the Advances in Rehabilitation Science and Practice Journal.