Functional neurological symptoms as initial presentation of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease: case series

Background: Functional Neurological Disorders (FND) are common in clinical practice. It is recognized that FND may present at onset or during the course of other neurological diseases (functional comorbidity).

Cases: We report a clinical series of three patients who initially presented positive signs of a functional movement disorder (FMD) and were later diagnosed with a Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD). All patients presented with unilateral functional tremor, two patients also had functional limb weakness. All patients progressed to an asymmetric corticobasal syndrome, fulfilling clinical criteria of CJD. They had a rapid progression and died within 2-3 months.

Conclusions: FND may be the initial clinical presentation of neurodegenerative diseases reflecting a dysfunction across brain circuits that are involved in the pathophysiology of FND. A positive diagnosis of FND is essential as it is an adequate examination and a close follow-up of these patients in neurology clinics.