standard care for PNES

Breaking news: Results of a major Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) Study for psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (dissociative seizures) just published

Recently, Goldstein et al published their results from a randomized CBT treatment versus “treatment as usual” (TAU) study in which treatment outcome in patients who had a history of dissociative seizures was compared (Goldstein et al., 2020). The study is the largest and most well-designed study to date. It included an initial 3-month observation period …

Breaking news: Results of a major Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) Study for psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (dissociative seizures) just published Read More »

A book on psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (PNES) in the 19th Century

Warning: PNES used to be called hysteria in the 19th Century and since this is a historical book, that is the term you will find in it. The Nature/Nurture explanation of human behavior are like two sides of a coin and over the last few centuries, the coin keeps getting tossed every few decades. The …

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New article: Long-term outcome in a sample of underprivileged patients with psychogenic nonepileptic seizures (PNES) living in Argentina

This month, researchers from Argentina (Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, de la Universidad de Buenos Aires y del ENyS) together with Dr. Lorna Myers (Director, Psychogenic Non-epileptic Seizures Program at the Northeast Regional Epilepsy Group) published an article in the Epilepsy and Behavior Journal: “Long-term outcome in a sample of underprivileged patients with psychogenic nonepileptic …

New article: Long-term outcome in a sample of underprivileged patients with psychogenic nonepileptic seizures (PNES) living in Argentina Read More »

The good news is that you don’t have epilepsy, instead you have something called PNES

This blog’s title depicts a common way in which many doctors explain the diagnosis of Psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (PNES) to patients who are newly diagnosed with this disorder. I suspect this presentation is meant to suggest to the patient that having PNES is less terrible, dangerous, maybe potentially intractable, etc. than having epilepsy. However, in …

The good news is that you don’t have epilepsy, instead you have something called PNES Read More »

Pseudoseizures, the bias held by some health professionals and this really has to stop!

Warning: the content in this blog post may be upsetting and hurtful to the reader-it contains insulting and coarse language found on-line describing patients with PNES   For a few months three of us have been working on a project examining how often PNES (and all the other names that this condition goes by) appears …

Pseudoseizures, the bias held by some health professionals and this really has to stop! Read More »

With all the exceptional research being conducted on PNES/NEAD, is this seriously the article that was chosen to be highlighted by the Epilepsy Foundation of America (EFA) in their effort to address the PNES topic?

I remember like it was yesterday, while still a fellow in training, an attending doctor said: Lorna, when you start publishing in the future, make sure you don’t just publish noise. When I asked what he meant by that, he explained that too many articles published in scientific journals are just noise, static like on …

With all the exceptional research being conducted on PNES/NEAD, is this seriously the article that was chosen to be highlighted by the Epilepsy Foundation of America (EFA) in their effort to address the PNES topic? Read More »

Psychogenic non-epileptic seizures was prominently featured at the American Epilepsy Society Meeting (AES) in Seattle, WA in December 2014

The condition of psychogenic non-epileptic seizures has for a very long time been a bit of an orphan in the health field.  It can take up to seven years on average to receive the right diagnosis and even once it is made, too often the patients experience a “ping pong effect” of being referred from …

Psychogenic non-epileptic seizures was prominently featured at the American Epilepsy Society Meeting (AES) in Seattle, WA in December 2014 Read More »

Creating proper treatment programs for psychogenic non-epileptic seizures in the US

In June and July of this year I blogged on how poor standard of care is in the US for many patients diagnosed with psychogenic non-epileptic seizures. However, this month I am happy to write about a positive experience I had at Overlook Hospital of Summit, New Jersey. In the summer, I blogged about deficient …

Creating proper treatment programs for psychogenic non-epileptic seizures in the US Read More »

A sad truth: Standard care of psychogenic non epileptic seizures in the US is deficient and how to make this better

There are three major weaknesses in the standard care of PNES: 1) It takes on average 7 years to correctly diagnose the condition; 2) Psychiatry and psychology are woefully ignorant about psychogenic non epileptic seizures (PNES) and unprepared to treat despite PNES being a psychological condition; 3) Although inpatient epilepsy monitoring centers throughout the US …

A sad truth: Standard care of psychogenic non epileptic seizures in the US is deficient and how to make this better Read More »

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