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Quality of Life In Children With Functional Neurological Illness- Comparison With Other Conditions and Impact of Multidisciplinary Therapy

Objectives: Functional neurological disorder is the second most common reason presentation in neurology outpatient clinics. These patients typically present with physical symptoms that cannot be explained by a physical health disorder. Function First, founded at the Royal Alexandra Children’s Hospital, Brighton, UK in 2017, is a multidisciplinary service for young people experiencing functional illness. In this study we evaluated baseline quality of life in functional illness compared to other chronic illnesses and measured the impact of multidisciplinary therapy on the quality of life of young people with functional illness. Methods: The study population included patients enrolled in the Function First service between December 2017 and September 2020. They had recorded measures of perceived quality of life. Quality of life was measured with the PedsQL™ questionnaire. These were completed by both parent and child at the beginning and end of treatment. Results: The average baseline self-reported quality of life was 42.0 (SD 19.5) out of a maximum 100, the higher the score the better the perceived quality of life. In total, 26 children had completed both pre and post-treatment PedsQL™. The baseline PedsQL™ from this group was 41.4 (SD 17.5) which is significantly lower than scores published for other chronic conditions. The post-treatment PedsQL™ was 52.5 (SD 19.5) implying a significant improvement in quality of life (p=0.0005).

Conclusion: Children with functional illness have a poorer quality of life compared to other chronic conditions. Multidisciplinary management of children with these symptoms resulted in significantly increased quality of life.