Management of functional communication, swallowing, cough & related disorders: consensus recommendations for speech & language therapy, 2021, Baker

[carpe diem]

Speech and language therapist I would assume.

yes

 

[cassava7]

This seems to be a continuation of the authors' previous work. In the seminal book on functional neurological disorders edited by Hallett, Stone and Carson (published in 2016), the lead author of this study, Baker, had contributed a chapter on "functional voice disorders" and the senior author, McWhirter, co-contributed a chapter on "functional coma".

I qualify this book as "seminal" given that the website of the FND Society notes:

The Beginning

In September 2017, Mark Hallett, Jon Stone and Alan Carson organized a 3-day international meeting for health professionals on FND in Edinburgh on the back of a volume of the Handbook of Clinical Neurology on FND[1]. 550 delegates attended and there was enthusiasm for further similar meetings in the future.
​

Of note, Carson and Stone are respectively associate editor and editor of the JNNP. McWirther works alongside them at the Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences of the University of Edinburgh. This article likely received an easy pass from the journal.

ETA: from the abstract, there seems to be quite a leap from the methods -- email questionnaire and one video conference -- to the conclusion; selection and confirmation biases, precisely (spacing added):

An international panel of speech and language professionals with expertise in FND were approached to take part. Participants responded individually by email to a set of key questions regarding best practice for assessment and interventions.

Next, a video conference was held in which participants discussed and debated the answers to these key questions, aiming to achieve consensus on each issue.

(...) Speech and language professionals have a key role in the management of people with communication and related symptoms of FND.​