ReviewEpilepsy & behavior reports2021
Subjective versus objective measures of distress, arousal and symptom burden in patients with functional seizures and other functional neurological symptom disorder presentations: A systematic review.
Review in Epilepsy & behavior reports, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers.
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.
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.
Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed, 27 citations in OpenAlex.
- What is the effect of alarmist media and radiofrequency electromagnetic field (RF-EMF) exposure on salivary cortisol and non-specific symptoms?Applied psychology. Health and well-being · 2025Trial
- Investigating mechanisms and monitoring outcomes in functional neurological disorder: the unrealized potential of digital remote monitoring technologies.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2026Review
- Functionality of symptoms and interpersonal communication in home video recordings of functional/dissociative versus epileptic seizures.Epilepsia · 2026Article
- Sleep in Functional Motor Disorders: A Case-Control Polysomnographic Study.Journal of sleep research · 2026Article
- Momentary predictors of dissociation in functional neurological disorder: an ecological momentary assessment-based pilot study.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Article
- Cognitive rehabilitation for functional neurological disorder.CNS spectrums · 2025Review
- Development of a qualitative data analysis codebook for peri-ictal behavior in suspected functional seizures.Epilepsia · 2025Article
- Modulating the sense of agency in functional neurological disorder using real-time fMRI neurofeedback: a proof-of-concept study.NeuroImage. Clinical · 2025Article
- Real-time biopsychosocial antecedents and correlates of functional neurological symptoms in daily life: A pilot remote monitoring technology study.Psychiatry research · 2024Article
- Objective and subjective neurocognitive functioning in functional motor symptoms and functional seizures: preliminary findings.Journal of clinical and experimental neuropsychology · 2023Article
- Special issue on the intersection between functional seizures and other functional neurological disorders.Epilepsy & behavior reports · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Symptoms and functioning can be measured subjectively using self-report measures or objectively, based on physiological changes. This raises the question whether subjective and objective measures are closely correlated and - if not - whether one is more accurate or meaningful than the other, especially in patients with Functional Seizures (FS) or other Functional Neurological Symptom Disorders (FND), where subjective and objective observations may be thought particularly likely to deviate. This systematic review explores these questions focussing on measures of distress, arousal and symptom burden. Eighteen studies (12 FS, 6 other FND) capturing 396 FND patients were included. Eleven reported no correlation between subjective and objective measures. Only four studies reported significant correlations (r's = -0.74-0.59, p's < 0.05). The small number of studies and diverse methodologies do not provide conclusive answers to the questions posed. Given that subjective and objective measures capture different aspects of current state or function, a combination of measurement approaches is likely to provide optimal information about patients' health state. In view of the attentional and perceptual alterations implicated in FND, the difference between objective and subjective measures may represent an interesting observation in its own right.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
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 OpenQuestion graph.