Objective To assess 6-month outcomes of patients diagnosed with functional cognitive disorders (FCD) in a dedicated cognitive disorders clinic based in secondary care. A cohort of patients diagnosed with FCD (Neurodegener Dis Manag 2018;8:377–83) were contacted by telephone (maximum three attempts) 6 months after diagnosis, and administered the same subjective memory complaints (SMC) Likert scale assessing metamemory as administered at the initial clinic visit.

Results Of 51 FCD patients, 44 had baseline SMC Likert and 29 provided follow-up data (57% of whole cohort, 66% of those with baseline data). Of these 29, 16 (55%) gave the same self-rating on SMC Likert, 11 (38%) higher, and 2 (7%) lower than at baseline. Only 5 patients changed category, all from SMC+ (self-rating memory poor or fair) to SMC- (self-rating memory good, very good or excellent). The null hypothesis that the proportion of SMC+ patients did not differ significantly between baseline (27/29=93%) and follow-up (22/29=76%) was not rejected (Z=1.81, 0.1 > p>0.05).

Conclusions Whilst some patients with FCD may improve spontaneously over six months, perhaps reassured by the finding of no neurodegenerative disorder, the majority remain unchanged as judged by a brief measure of metamemory.