307- The Curious Case of Functional Dysphagia: What to do when the swallow looks fine, but doesn’t feel fine.

You know when a patient complains about swallowing difficulty and you do an instrumental, but everything looks fine?

Excuse my lack of eloquence here, but…what the heck?

This is often referred to as functional dyspahgia, and in this week’s episode of The Swallow Your Pride Podcast, I had the absolute joy of talking about it with Jaimie Anderson MS, CCC-SLP, BC-ANCDS.

Together we discuss the challenges that come with significant swallowing complaints that don’t align with swallow studies, what functional dysphagia is, symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment options. Jaimie even throws in an analogy to help us better understand this mystery.

Tune in and let us know what you think!

Get the show notes: https://syppodcast.com/307

Timestamps:

The challenges of diagnosing and treating patients with significant swallowing complaints (00:03:11)

Introduction to functional dysphagia and its criteria (00:07:44)

Excluding other potential causes of dysphagia before considering functional dysphagia (00:08:46)

The challenges of limited treatment options (00:09:50)

Diagnosing functional dysphagia (00:10:33)

Inclusionary criteria for functional disorders (00:11:41)

The challenges of diagnosing and treating patients with functional dysphagia (00:18:18)

The importance of interdisciplinary collaboration in treating patients with functional dysphagia (00:19:45)

The role of education and counseling in treating functional dysphagia (00:26:01)

The software vs hardware analogy (00:26:49)

Functional paralysis and neurological manifestations (00:28:15)

Importance of education and counseling (00:31:49)

The history of functional dysphagia (00:35:51)

The challenges of diagnosing and treating dysphagia (00:37:09)

Treatment options for functional dysphagia (00:39:47)

The contact information and webinar announcement (00:44:58)