Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40747262›Full record

ArticleFrontiers in psychiatry2025

The adjunct role of pharmacotherapy in multimodal treatment of paediatric functional neurological disorder.

Rynagh Cummins, Clare Hawkes, Judy Longworth, Stephen Scher, Kasia Kozlowska

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Frontiers in psychiatry, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
0citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

0 citing papers in PubMed.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors.

Rynagh CumminsDepartment of Psychological Medicine, The Children's Hospital at Westmead, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
Clare HawkesDepartment of Psychological Medicine, The Children's Hospital at Westmead, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
Judy LongworthDepartment of Psychological Medicine, The Children's Hospital at Westmead, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
Stephen ScherDepartment of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, and McLean Hospital, Belmont, MA, United States.
Kasia KozlowskaDepartment of Psychological Medicine, The Children's Hospital at Westmead, Sydney, NSW, Australia.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Background: Rehabilitation for children with functional neurological disorder (FND) requires a biopsychosocial intervention: physiotherapy, psychotherapy, pharmacotherapy, school attendance, and family work. This study documents the pharmacotherapeutic element and its rationale. Methods: Medication use was documented in 158 children with FND (41 boys, 117 girls, aged 8.50-17.58; mean 13.78) admitted into the Mind-Body Program. Results: On presentation, children with FND had high levels of functional impairment, school loss, and comorbid psychiatric, functional, and medical disorders. On admission, 63% (n=95) were on medications. During admission, 130 (82.3%) children had pharmacotherapy interventions: dose adjustment, initiation, or discontinuation. 88.6% (n=140) were discharged on medications. Pharmacotherapy targets included: antidepressants for anxiety/depression (n=111; 70.3%); antipsychotics for extreme anxiety/arousal (n=73; 46.2%); melatonin for sleep (n=64; 40.5%); α agonists and β blockers, for arousal, sleep initiation, and trauma-related nightmares (n=58; 36.7%); iron/vitamin supplementation (n=30; 19.0%); and medications for functional gut symptoms (n=28; 17.7%) and comorbid pain (n=20; 12.7%). Conclusions: Pharmacotherapy is used as an adjunct in paediatric FND to down-regulate the stress system, reset the circadian clock, manage pain, and treat comorbid disorders. Pharmacotherapy and its concomitant placebo effects scaffold the child to enable engagement in all components of the therapeutic process and return to healthy function.

Indexed as

arousalchildfunctional/dissociative seizuresfunctional neurological (conversion) disorder (FND)medicationpsychiatryrehabilitationsleep problems

Identifiers

PMID40747262
PMCPMC12311808

What Socratic holds

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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.