Movement Disorders and Early Maladaptive Schemas

Functional neurological disorders (FND) are neurological symptoms that cannot be explained by a lesion or related to an identified dysfunction of the central nervous system. FND are under-diagnosed, although common and highly disabling. Childhood trauma events are found in 30% to 80% of FND patients, and are more common in people with functional neurological disorder than in healthy controls and patient controls. Overall, risks factors, perpetuating factors and maintaining factors have been described in FND, although none of the studies have analysed the prevalence of Early Maladaptive Schemas (EMS) in these patients. EMS, as measured with the Young Schema Questionnaire (YSQ), are proposed to underlie a variety of mental health problems, in particular Personality Disorders. We hypothesize that some of these early maladaptive schemas may participate in the psychopathology and severity of FND. The main outcome of this study is to assess the prevalence of early maladaptive schemas in patients presenting with Functional Movement Disorders in comparison to patients presenting with Parkinson's Disease or Organic Dystonia. The secondary outcomes are to further analyse the underlying relation of these early maladaptive schemas and (i) the severity of the motor symptoms, (ii) anxiety and/or depression, (iii) the occurrence of childhood trauma events in our participants.