About This Clinic
The Functional Neurological Disorders (FND) Clinic at the Dell Children’s Comprehensive Pediatric Epilepsy Center is a multidisciplinary clinic within UT Health Austin Pediatric Neurosciences at Dell Children’s, a clinical partnership between Dell Children’s Medical Center and UT Health Austin.
The FND Clinic diagnoses, treats, and manages care of children with psychogenic nonepileptic events, or PNEE (also known as functional seizures, or FS) and other related functional neurological disorders. Our highly specialized providers have the knowledge, skills, and technology needed to give patients and their families the best quality of life.
FND is an umbrella diagnosis that includes PNEE/FS, as well as functional movement disorders and other FND subtypes. PNEE/FS are episodes of abnormal movements or behavioral change that can look like seizures but are not caused by electrical seizure activity in the brain. PNEE/FS are also sometimes referred to as psychogenic nonepileptic seizures or dissociative seizures. They have also been called pseudoseizures, but this term is no longer used.
The exact cause of FND is not known, but anxiety, stress, and other medical conditions, including epilepsy, are risk factors for developing PNEE/FS.
The FND Clinic is the only multidisciplinary FND clinic in Central Texas that provides comprehensive care from a neurologist, clinical psychologist, social worker, and nurse coordinator.
Through our clinical partnership with Dell Children's Medical Center, the UT Health Austin Pediatric Neurosciences at Dell Children’s program contributes to Dell Children's national recognition as one of the country's best specialty programs for Neurology and Neurosurgery by U.S. News & World Report in 2025-2026.
Treatment Approach
The multidisciplinary team in the FND Clinic includes a board-certified and fellowship-trained child neurologist, a social worker, a nurse coordinator, and a fellowship-trained pediatric clinical psychologist. Treatment involves focusing on patient-specific symptoms, addressing underlying risk factors, and coordinating with other members of the patient’s care team, including school nurses. Our ultimate goal is to help your child manage or eliminate their symptoms so they can return to school and other normal activities.
Appointment Information
For more information about the FND Clinic, please call 1-512-628-1855. You can also fax referrals to 1-512-380-7544.
About the Partnership Between UT Health Austin and Dell Children's
The collaboration between UT Health Austin and Dell Children's brings together medical professionals, medical school learners, and researchers who are all part of the integrated mission of transforming healthcare delivery and redesigning the academic health environment to better serve society. This collaboration allows highly specialized providers who are at the forefront of the latest research, diagnostic, and technological developments to build an integrated system of care that is a collaborative resource for clinicians and their patients.