“…Although specific data are still not available, we hypothesized that patients affected by functional neurological disorders (FND, also called conversion disorders), characterized by the presence of neurological symptoms that cannot be explained by typical neurological diseases or other medical conditions, might be at particularly high risk. This hypothesis is sustained by previous research studies that showed how intense and ubiquitously felt stressors, such as acts of terrorism, can increase the frequency of FND and other somatic complaints or can worsen preexisting disorders [ 2 , 3 ]. Here we aimed to explore the prevalence of stress, anxiety, depression and symptoms related to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) across a sample of patients with psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (PNES) and a sample of patients with functional movement disorders (FMD) during the first two months of COVID-19 pandemic in Italy, with respect to a sample of healthy controls (HC).…”