Chronic Functional Tremor: Positive Signs in the Management, Including Mirror Therapy

• Main Authors: Andreas Joos, Ramona Halmer
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Karger Publishers 2020-06-01
• Series: Case Reports in Neurology
• Subjects: functional tremor; functional neurological symptom disorder; biopsychosocial treatment; mirror therapy
• Online Access: https://www.karger.com/Article/FullText/507567

Functional tremor (FT) is a common functional neurological symptom disorder (FNSD) and difficult to treat. Diagnosis is often delayed in FNSD, which reinforces maladaptation and chronicity. The presented case, who had suffered from FT for 2 years, demonstrates the value of positive neurological symptoms in the diagnosis and treatment of FNSD, even in a chronic case. The patient improved well during integrated inpatient rehabilitation, which included mirror therapy (MT). He had complete suppressibility of the tremor during distraction, which was shown to him, and reversibility of the FT was emphasized. Due do the suppressibility when focusing on the contralateral arm, we installed MT as part of a combined inpatient neurological-psychotherapeutic rehabilitation treatment lasting 8 weeks. During treatment, some strong emotional themes came up. At the end of rehabilitation, the tremor almost completely subsided. Possible pathomechanisms are discussed. Future studies are recommended for determining the effectiveness of MT in FNSD with one-sided symptoms.