Functional Movement Disorder & Hypermobility Syndrome

An Extract of a letter to me from my Consultant Neurologist explain my Movement Disorder (snake-like movements in my spine and other twitches -e.g. shoulders)

"I think (her) movements are best characterised as a functional movement disorder. This is a rather poorly defined term, and one where synonyms like psychogenic imply very clearly a psychological explanation (typically based on thbe idea of an underlying emotional trauma). While this may be a cause in some people, the vast majority of people I see have physical triggers (physical illness, injury and pain), and I think this is a much more important and understandable way in which such learned patterns of abnormal movement can emerge. This is not to minimise the importance of psychological factors such as anxiety or depression - these can be important too, just as they are in more traditionally accepted neurological problems such as Parkinson's disease or tic disorders.


I have now seen a number of people with joint hypermobility syndrome who additionally have movement problems that seem to me to best fit within the "functional" category. I think that the common experience of people with hypermobility of chronic pain, abnormal problems that occur in HMS (e.g. bowel, autonomic bladder problems, anxiety and depressive disorders) act together to increase vulnerability to development of these abnormal movement patterns" Consultant Neurologist

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuyJvWCIwDM&context=C484a208ADvjVQa1PpcFMA9MmI4mRcyfORhIj_lakOCKiYtbxDPME=