Prevalence of Autoimmune Diseases in Functional Neurological Disorder: Influence of Psychiatric Comorbidities and Biological Sex

Abstract

Background: Functional neurological disorder (FND) is a common and disabling neuropsychiatric condition, which disproportionally affects women compared to men. While the etiopathogenesis of this disorder remains elusive, immune dysregulation is emerging as one potential mechanism. Aim: To begin to understand the role of immune dysfunction in FND, we assessed the prevalence of several common autoimmune diseases (ADs) in a large cohort of patients with FND and examined the influence of psychiatric comorbidities and biological sex. Methods: Using a large biorepository database (Mass General Brigham Biobank), we obtained demographic and clinical data of a cohort of 643 patients diagnosed with FND between January 2015 and December 2021. The proportion of ADs was calculated overall, by sex and presence of psychiatric comorbidities. Results: The overall prevalence of ADs in our sample was 41.9%, with connective tissue diseases and autoimmune endocrine diseases being the most commonly observed ADs. Among patients with FND and ADs, 27.7% had 2 or more ADs and 8% met criteria for multiple autoimmune syndrome. Rates of ADs were significantly higher in subjects with comorbid major depressive disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder (p= 0.02). Women represented the largest proportion of patients with concurrent ADs, both in the overall sample and in the subgroups of interest (p< 0.05). Conclusions: This study is unique in providing evidence of an association between FND and ADs. Future studies are needed to investigate the mechanisms underlying this association and to understand whether FND is characterized by distinct dysregulations in immune response.