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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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The stigma of psychogenic non epileptic seizures (PNES) is still with us

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The topic for this month’s post came to me after finding a thread of comments made by emergency medical professionals (EMPs) about psychogenic non epileptic seizures (http://www.emtlife.com/showthread.php?p=299085).  It was saddening to read how EMPs talked about how they are often berated by hospital staff for bringing in patients with non epileptic seizures. I hope reading …

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Video EEG monitoring: the “Gold Standard” when diagnosing psychogenic (psychological) non epileptic seizures

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Can someone tell if the difference between a PNES spell and an epileptic seizure (ES) just by looking at the spell itself?  Answer: NO What is Video EEG Telemetry and how is it useful to make a PNES diagnosis? Newer technology allows doctors to monitor electrical activity in the patient’s brain during epileptic events.  In …

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The connection between Psychological (Psychogenic) non epileptic seizures and a history of trauma

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How many people with PNES have a history of trauma? An interesting article was published in the Journal Epilepsy and Behavior ( 2004) by Fiszman et.  al. It reviewed 17 PNES studies and found that traumatic events and PTSD in persons with PNES were very common.  Depending on the study: 44-100% of PNES patients had …

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So you’ve been told you have PNES – What’s that?

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You’ve certainly been dealt a real challenge.  Why? Because PNES is  a very complicated psychological condition that seems to defy logic.  There are however some promising treatments. We only need to figure out who they will serve best. In my opinion, the biggest problem lies in that we may be lumping different conditions into one single …

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