When signals in the brain are disrupted, you can experience a range of issues with how you move, including tremors, involuntary muscle contractions or difficulty with your gait or how you walk. While these types of symptoms are often associated with chronic neurologic disorders like Parkinson’s disease or multiple sclerosis, which permanently damage the nervous system, many people are surprised to learn that they may not have a clear neurological cause. When this is the cause of your motor symptoms, you may have what’s known as a functional movement disorder.

Functional movement disorders — sometimes also shortened to FMD — are actually quite common. The good news is that they can often be completely reversed. The key is getting the right treatment. Ohio State’s Functional Movement Disorders Clinic was created to help you understand your condition and develop a treatment plan that can improve or even completely resolve your symptoms.

Understanding how mental health impacts physical health

Stress and other factors can trigger your physical symptoms. With the help of a clinical psychologist who has experience working with neurology patients — our patients learn to use psychotherapy techniques to recognize and control their symptom triggers. This often includes cognitive behavioral therapy.

What to expect

At your first clinic appointment, we’ll review your medical history and discuss your goals and concerns before creating an individual plan for your symptoms and unique lifestyle.

We may recommend cognitive behavioral therapy, which is an option that helps you explore what situations, thoughts and emotions might trigger your functional motor challenges and teaches how to manage your responses to improve your physical health.

Therapy will help you understand how your symptoms might be impacted by certain life events or daily realities and your reactions to them. We’ll also work together to improve your coping skills, including learning relaxation strategies, tools to manage stress and establishing other positive habits that can be quite useful for resolving movement issues.

We may have other recommendations as well, including medication or referral to other specialists at Ohio State for things such as physical therapy, occupational therapy or balance assessments.

Treating you as a whole person

Because our Functional Movement Disorders Clinic is part of the larger Ohio State Wexner Medical Center, we can easily talk with any other doctors who may be helping you with ongoing medical treatment and discuss the best way to manage your overall care. It’s also what makes it so easy for us to refer you to other specialists as part of your functional movement disorder treatment.

When a team of specialists from different medical disciplines work closely together like this to help a patient achieve their best health, we call that “multidisciplinary care,” and that’s one of the greatest advantages of treatment at Ohio State.

Better health and wellness for life

If you’re struggling with bothersome movement issues, you may benefit from the care provided by Ohio State’s Functional Movement Disorders Clinic. In the end, many patients not only receive treatment or learn techniques that improve or resolve their functional movement disorders, but they also begin applying what they’ve learned to improve their health and wellness in other areas of their life as well.

Clinic hours and location

The Ohio State Functional Movement Disorders Clinic is offered twice per month at Outpatient Care Gahanna.