Fnd Movement symptoms and Autism diagnosis

[Mattie21]

Hey, for those who are autistic and have motor symptoms as part of their FND, this paper talks about the link between parkinsonism and autism. It's a systematic review so highest form of evidence.

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl...

They found that a significant proportion of individuals with ASD demonstrated clinically apparent motor difficulties, but only a small portion of them received a specific diagnosis...as well I thought it was interesting that females with autism are at heightened risk of movement symptoms.

Parkinsons medications are less effective/not effective in severe forms of parkinsons like psp, msa and cbd. So I'm not holding out for levodopa meds but it just helps me reduce internalised stigma just knowing this and hope it helps others too.

[tinygianthuman]

Thanks Mattie, as I'm pretty new to all this (my symptoms started in February and I got a FND diagnosis in May) I'm still trying to understand all the terminology. I struggle with movement and speech difficulties... is parkinsonism what this is called? I am in my mid-forties and autistic, and although still struggling with getting used to all my symptoms, there is a bit of me that feels like they have been under the surface for a long time.

[Mattie21 in reply to tinygianthuman]

Oh gosh I think you've just asked me the hardest (but good) question! Ummm my take on it is: age related neurodegenerative conditions are divided up into categories with alzheimers on one end (mainly memory issues) and parkinsons disease on the other (mainly motor issues). The motor issues can come from basal ganglia part of the brain you can get extra movements, slowed movements, reduced coordination (can get imprecise speech, slow walking, uncoordinated walking, swallow ans speech problems etc). Within parkinsonian conditions you have parkinsons disease with responds well to levodopa typically, and then more severe forms called atypical parkinsonian conditions where meds don't help so much (all side effect limited or no gain) ones called PSP, MSA, dementia lewy bodies, corticobasal degeneration)....so you have all these types plus frontotempiral dementia etc but in reality symptoms don't fit neatly into boxes and lots of people don't get diagnosed. Interestingly even people with alzheimers get slow gait speed even though the brain cell loss is mesnt to be just the outer parts of brain not the basal ganglia deep bits....Secondly thete is a range of psychiatric conditions and developmental disorders and then there is generally more rapid decline/earlier onset of these types of issues...theyre probably risk factors. Life stresses, inflammation, surgical procedures, illness can get you these flare ups so you get like a sneak peak of what's to come down the track which is maybe why youve come across them before.... I think what upsets health professionals about fnd is that it is so insanely variable in severity of symptoms. So you have to like have the strategies some of the time and other times you're OK so like it's good to build awareness of triggers and predict what your body needs. All in all many symptoms are probably driven by an body energy budget that's in deficit. That's why physio see remarkable improvements in fnd patients that drop their life commitments and focus on just therapy but then might have reduced functioning when returning to life demands. So pretty much the more efficient you can make your shopping, cooking, socialising, earning an income, manage sensory sensitivities, the less conflicts you have in life (learn attachment theory, setting boundaries, circle of security if you have kids) then maybe probably potentially the slower the progression of symptoms?

Do you have other symptoms like coughing at night time when having dual consistencies (liquid and solid like minestrone soup) or with drinks? It could be good to get assessed by a speech pathologist (I find drinking milk at night better when im triggered as it's naturally slower and gives my epiglottis time to closer over the airway)...speechie can also help if you get a feeling like your air is being cut off or grabbing in your throat. It's called inducible laryngeal obstruction. You need an adult speechie who specialises in voice disorders. They can also help with chronic refractory cough if you get that.

I hope you're OK with the info dump ( love my autism hehhe ) one positive I've noticed from fnd is that my autism is like super heightened so I think my awareness has increased I dunno recently I've started painting and I can "see" what I'm drawing more than in the past which is kind of cool!