FND Research Connect aims to speed up research on functional neurological disorder (FND). We do this by connecting people with FND to research studies that are appropriate for them.
Everybody can help FND research. As well as people with functional neurological disorder, people who have had FND and are in remission give researchers valuable insights into what is different in the brain of someone prone to FND while they don’t have symptoms. Research also needs control participants, which makes people who have never had FND essential to progressing the science of this condition.
Many people with functional neurological disorder (FND) would like to participate in studies on their condition. The usual way to recruit people to a study is to advertise the project then hope people to notice it. This can take a long time.
FND Research Connect streamlines this process by allowing people to register their details to be contacted about studies that would suit them. This means that we can help researchers get in touch with people who fit their study as soon as the project is ready to start. It also means that people with FND can rely on finding out about the latest studies with as little effort as possible.
Research into functional neurological disorder is the path to better FND treatment. For that reason, many people with FND want to participate in studies on the condition, but finding studies can be the hard part.
Studies are advertised in different ways in different places, which makes them easy to miss. By signing up for FND Research Connect, there’s no need to keep looking for advertisements for studies: the research will come to you. Any time we start recruiting for a new study, we will contact everyone who fits the criteria for the study and invite them to participate.
Recruiting for studies can be a slow process, and is often the rate-limiting step for projects with specific inclusion criteria. With our database of interested participants indexed to their clinical features, we can help with targeted recruitment to speed up the data-collection process and move you on to the next question.
FND Research Connect also maintains a longitudinal database of de-identified information from participants who consent to this extra feature. Researchers can apply to access data from this database for epidemiological studies.