Lancet neurology
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Functional (psychogenic) neurological symptoms are frequently encountered in neurological practice. Cranial movement disorders--affecting the eyes, face, jaw, tongue, or palate--are an under-recognised feature of patients with functional symptoms. They can present in isolation or in the context of other functional symptoms; in particular, for functional eye movements, positive clinical signs such as convergence spasms can be triggered by the clinical examination. ⋯ Identification of the positive features of cranial functional movement disorders such as convergence and unilateral platysmal spasm might lend diagnostic weight to a suspected functional neurological disorder. Understanding of the differential diagnosis, which is broad and includes many organic causes (eg, stroke), is essential to make an early and accurate diagnosis to prevent complications and initiate appropriate management. Increased understanding of these disorders is also crucial to drive clinical trials and studies of individually tailored therapies.
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Technological advances have paved the way for accelerated genomic discovery and are bringing precision medicine clearly into view. Epilepsy research in particular is well suited to serve as a model for the development and deployment of targeted therapeutics in precision medicine because of the rapidly expanding genetic knowledge base in epilepsy, the availability of good in-vitro and in-vivo model systems to efficiently study the biological consequences of genetic mutations, the ability to turn these models into effective drug-screening platforms, and the establishment of collaborative research groups. Moving forward, it is crucial that these collaborations are strengthened, particularly through integrated research platforms, to provide robust analyses both for accurate personal genome analysis and gene and drug discovery. Similarly, the implementation of clinical trial networks will allow the expansion of patient sample populations with genetically defined epilepsy so that drug discovery can be translated into clinical practice.