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Psychogenic non epileptic seizures: difficulties in reading emotions accurately

In a 2005 article in Epilepsy and Behavior Journal Bewley et. al. reported that just over 90% of PNES sufferers scored positive for “Alexithymia.” What is alexithymia? It is a difficulty: 1) Identifying your own feelings 2) Distinguishing between emotional feelings and the bodily sensations that go along with emotion. 3) Describing feelings to other …

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Psychogenic non epileptic seizures and PTSD

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According to an article by PNES specialist, Dr. Marcus Reuber (2008), 90% of PNES sufferers have a history of trauma. Not surprisingly, many present with symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This means that they have intrusive symptoms (e.g. nightmares, memories), avoidance behavior (of reminders), and hyperarousal symptoms (e.g. startle response, hypervigilance for danger). Research …

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Is there a treatment for psychogenic non epileptic seizures?

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Yes, but… There are a myriad of factors that can affect the prognosis (whether the outcome will be good or bad). What are some of the factors we know support a good prognosis? 1) The sooner the right diagnosis is made. That avoids the condition becoming chronic and the suffering. But on average patients spend …

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Why do patients with psychogenic non epileptic seizures have such poor quality of life?

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Recently, I have been reading a lot about quality of life in PNES so that is what I am going to write about today. Two years ago, as part of a research project that our group presented as a poster at the American Epilepsy Society in which we compared self-reports of quality of life in …

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Psychogenic non epileptic seizures flare up even when good things happen: does that make any sense?

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It does actually. The idea for today’s blog post came to me after one of my patients had several episodes right after getting some very good news. She was confused as was her family about why this happened. This led to our talking about different kinds of stress and we were able to make sense …

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Psychogenic non epileptic seizures: why is your memory so bad if this is all psychological?

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So, for those who dismiss PNES as something that is “just psychological,” don’t be so hasty. The fact that it is psychological does not mean it does not have some very real consequences.

Mindfulness and psychogenic non epileptic seizures

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If we spend our energy avoiding, we miss so many moments in our life, we end up being mindless rather than mindful. Mindfulness and psychotherapy of psychogenic non epileptic seizures aim to shift the balance the other way.

Talking about psychogenic non epileptic seizures in Guadalajara, Mexico

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Last week, I was invited to the Third International Neuropsychology conference in Guadalajara on Rehabilitation and Epilepsy. It gave me a wonderful opportunity to talk about a little known condition that is actually quite common in epilepsy centers: psychogenic non epileptic seizures. The conference had drawn 500 attendees (psychology students, neuropsychologists and neurologists from all …

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Psychogenic non epileptic seizures: When life throws you a hurricane

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These last two weeks have been stressful for anyone who lives in the Northeast (USA). Understandably, the news has been the main topic for all my patients with psychogenic seizures. And I admit it, even this psychologist was rattled. Two earthquakes 5 days apart (note that our last earthquake was around 100 years ago), a …

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Are there just two kinds of trauma we should be looking for in psychogenic non epileptic seizures?

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I had a discussion some months back with a colleague who insisted that the only types of trauma that can bring about something as serious as a psychogenic non epileptic disorder (conversion disorder) are physical and/or sexual abuse in childhood. I disagree. Over the past few years, my patients with psychogenic seizures have been educating …

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