Long term vs. short term: when is one preferable to the other in the treatment of psychogenic non-epileptic seizures?

African common toad with warts Today I want to write about an experience I had a few weeks ago. I was speaking with some of my colleagues at a conference about working with patients who are diagnosed with PNES.  Several of them explained that they had been working with patients who had been having seizures (some of them very frequent and intense) for years.  When I asked what sort of treatment they were using,...

Psychogenic non-epileptic seizures: Fifth Annual conference held in New Jersey in 2018

This past Saturday, we held a historic annual conference on psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (PNES)! Historic, for many reasons, one of which is because it was the FIFTH year running that we have hosted this meeting. And as we have now become accustomed, it was successful on many, many levels and left us all feeling energized. There were two especially novel and exciting changes this year. We heard and responded...

Drumroll…. Fifth Annual Conference on Psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (PNES) will be taking place this October!

Five years ago, at the Northeast Regional Epilepsy Group, we took a leap into the unknown and organized our first ever PNES conference for patient and caregivers. Just days before the conference was to take place, we were understandably nervous.  We wondered if anyone would even show up, if there was any interest in the topic, and if this would be the first and last PNES conference. Fast forward now to five years...

Upcoming annual conference on psychogenic non-epileptic seizures 2018-we need your input

The date has now been announced: October 20th, 2018 from 8:30AM-4PM The place has also been announced: Malcolm Forbes Auditorium Morristown Medical Center 100 Madison Ave, Morristown, NJ 07960 Now, all we need is to hear from you about what you think would be the best topics to present that day for an audience that is made up of patients, loved ones, nurses, and mental health professionals. Are there any issues you...

A firefighter diagnosed with psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (PNES) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) was just featured in a news article

Yesterday, an article in print and video format came out in which a Canadian firefighter describes the long road he traveled with his diagnosis of PNES. In it, he explains how he started to have problems after experiencing three sequential traumatic experiences. These, first led to developing post-traumatic stress disorder, and then progressed into PNES (a health condition that is woefully unknown to most).  His...