alt Hacker NewsThe answer is "nothing"
The only common factor between these patients is Dr. Marrero. It is notable that he is not the only physician who works in that clinic, but is the only one diagnosing this condition. The most likely cause is weak diagnostic skills for challenging patients.
Unfortunately, a majority of these patients likely have Functional Neurologic Disorder https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/conversion-di... , which is a horrible condition that accounts for a plurality of cases seen by most neurologists. This phantom diagnosis will probably make recovery almost impossible for those people. Acceptance of that diagnosis is the number 1 positive indicator for recovery.
Source: I live in the canadian maritimes, and know many neurologists.
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> The committee and the New Brunswick government also cast doubt on the work of neurologist Alier Marrero, who was initially referred dozens of cases by baffled doctors in the region, and subsequently identified more cases. The doctor has since become a fierce advocate for patients he feels have been neglected by the province.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jun/03/canada...
It seems to me that it's doctors reaching out to Marrero. It also seems odd that [these|this] illness(es) disproportionately affected young people.
Another article I just read stated Marrero reached out to get second opinions but was blocked.
> He claims he made arrangements in 2020-21 for "subject-matter experts" to travel to New Brunswick to evaluate patients, but the province "chose not to avail itself of this invaluable expertise."
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/new-brunswick-n...
FND is itself basically a trashcan diagnosis. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wastebasket_diagnosis
Right, but what is causing the functional neurological disorder? Speaking as someone who has had alot of of chronic pain [CPPS] there is some sort of neuro issue going on but we don't know what it is. But "dementia, weight loss, unsteadiness, jerking movements and facial twitches" does seem like more than just neuro?
Consider hypothetical scenario: some present in the environment toxin is causing migraine symptoms.
A doctor following diagnostic criteria might assign "migraine" diagnosis and provide standard recommendations for migraine management.
Another doctor seeing a quick uptick of patients with migraine symptoms will try to investigate toxins and infections.
Which doctor is doing something useful here?
> Source: I live in the canadian maritimes, and know many neurologists.
That's a fairly weak claim for an appeal to authority.
and other times it turns out it IS something, e.g. alpha gal and all kinds of weird autoimmune disorders
this stuff is hard, because our tools suck and everything and everyone is an an unreliable narrator
> The answer is "nothing"
Wait by “nothing” do you mean that there is no cause for the disease that the link you posted says has an unknown cause, or “nothing” do you mean that they don’t actually have anything wrong with them but you’re sharing a neat link about a disease that has an unknown cause?
I normally wouldn’t question an hour old throwaway that knows many neurologists, but what exactly are you applying the word “nothing” to here? You started with one statement, said that you don’t like a guy, and then wrote another statement that negates your first statement.
Like by “nothing” do you mean “I personally do not know, so my knowledge of what is causing this is nothing, but I want to share that I don’t like that one doctor”?
> The only common factor between these patients is Dr. Marrero
They all live in the same province too. If you're already wrong here it's hard to trust anything else
This guy is probably chasing moonshine, but TBH "functional neurological disorder" sounds like one of those face-saving labels that doctors use when they don't have any idea what's going on.