ArticleNeurology. Clinical practice2023
Health Care Utilization in Functional Neurologic Disorders: Impact of Explaining the Diagnosis of Functional Seizures on Health Care Costs.
Article in Neurology. Clinical practice, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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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.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 25 citations in OpenAlex.
- Predictors of Treatment Success of Psychotherapy in Functional Disorders: A Systematic Review of the Literature.Clinical psychology & psychotherapyPooled it
- Somatisation Scores Associated With Healthcare Costs and Utilisation in a Sample of Emergency Department Patients.Emergency medicine Australasia : EMA · 2026Article
- Proposed criteria of levels of evidence for co-occurring epilepsy in people with functional/dissociative seizures.Epilepsia · 2026Article
- Clinical and demographic associations of recorded feigning in functional neurological disorder.Brain communications · 2026Article
- Beyond the spike: Functional (dissociative) seizures as a key to holistic attitudes in seizure disorders.Epilepsia · 2026Review
- Frequency and characteristics of functional neurological disorder in the emergency department.Journal of neurology · 2025Article
- Referral to a Functional Seizures Clinic Reduces Inpatient and Emergency Department Health Care Utilization and Costs.Neurology. Clinical practice · 2025Article
- Managing functional neurological disorder: treatment recommendations for health professionals in Australia.BMJ neurology open · 2025Review
- Dissociative seizures in the emergency room: room for improvement.Journal of neurology, neurosurgery, and psychiatry · 2024Article
- Reflections on the CODES trial for adults with dissociative seizures: what we found and considerations for future studies.BMJ neurology open · 2024Review
- Cross-sectional evaluation of health resource use in patients with functional neurological disorders referred to a tertiary neuroscience centre.BMJ neurology open · 2024Article
- The Financial Burden of Functional Neurological Disorders.Current neurology and neuroscience reports · 2023Review
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 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background and Objective: The objectives of this study were to investigate health care utilization costs of patients with video-electroencephalography (VEEG)-confirmed functional seizures (FS), determine whether patients who received a satisfactory functional neurologic disorder (FND) diagnosis explanation had reduced health care utilization compared with those with a poor explanation; and to quantify the overall health care costs 2 years prediagnosis and postdiagnosis for those receiving a different explanation. Methods: Patients with VEEG-confirmed pure FS (pFS) or mixed (functional seizure plus epileptic seizures) diagnosis between July 1, 2017, and July 1, 2019, were evaluated. Explanation of the diagnosis was determined "unsatisfactory" or "satisfactory" using self-developed criteria, and health care utilization data were collected using an itemized list. The subsequent costs 2 years post-FND diagnosis were compared with those 2 years before, and cost outcomes were compared between both groups. Results: In patients who received a satisfactory explanation (n = 18), total health care costs were reduced from $169,803 to $117,133 USD (-31%). An increase in costs was found ($73,430 to $186,553 USD = +154%) in patients with pPNES after an unsatisfactory explanation (n = 7). On an individual level, 78% with a satisfactory explanation saw a reduction in total health care costs per year (mean $5,111 USD to $1,728 USD), and in 57%, an unsatisfactory explanation led to an increase (mean $4,425 to $20,524 USD). A similar effect was seen from explanation on patients with a dual diagnosis. Discussion: The method of communicating an FND diagnosis has a significant impact on subsequent health care utilization. Those receiving satisfactory explanations demonstrated reduced health care utilization, whereas an unsatisfactory explanation resulted in additional expenses.
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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.