Could Prolonged Exposure (PE) therapy be useful in treating psychogenic non-epileptic seizures?

Up to 90% of patients with psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (PNES) report histories of significant trauma (often childhood sexual and physical abuse).  If we compare with control groups and the general US population, we find that in fact, patients with psychogenic non epileptic seizures have suffered more abuse than these other groups.   As for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), studies have reported...

Psychogenic non epileptic seizures: are all patients diagnosed with PNES alike? Are there differences?

In order for psychotherapy to have any chance of working, the psychologist needs to have targets to work on and goals for change. The most obvious goal for change in PNES is for the behavioral episodes (i.e. non-epileptic seizures) to stop. In reality, there are a number of other important goals in treating PNES but this is by far the most visible one. Treatment targets on the other hand are many and will vary...

Psychogenic non-epileptic seizures webinar in 2013-differences in opinions

About ten days ago I announced that we will be offering a psychogenic non-epileptic webinar in September of 2013. I received incredibly positive responses from patients, family members and a number of health professionals. But I was surprised to receive some unhappy comments from others in the medical profession. Today’s blog talks about some of the points that came up. One comment expressed unhappiness with...

Psychogenic non epileptic seizures: treatment for psychogenic seizures

In the field of psychogenic non-epileptic seizures, there are two “million dollar questions.” One is: Why do you develop seizure-like episodes and not some other stress-related symptoms? Is it something about your history (i.e. types of trauma), your physiological make-up (i.e. tendency to be hyper-sensitive), is there something neurological (something about the way your brain functions)? Is it all of these...

Psychogenic non-epileptic seizures: what is neuropsychology showing us?

In December of 2012, the neuropsychology team from the Northeast Regional Epilepsy Group will present some interesting early findings about patients with psychogenic non-epileptic seizures as compared to patients with epilepsy. The study compared executive functions (planning and organizing, problem solving, attention, working memory, mental flexibility, set shifting) in patients with psychogenic non-epileptic...