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 this year’s American Epilepsy Society meeting there...

Why do Psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (PNES) become chronic for so many?

For the past year or so I have had a survey up on www.nonepilepticseizures.com homepage.  It asks: How long have you been suffering non-epileptic episodes? 109 responses were received.  Note that this is not a scientific survey that is based on those who wished to respond. Over 40% reported that PNES has been part of their life for over 5 years!  Thirty-seven percent reported that PNES has been part of their life...

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 evaluate and diagnose up to 20-30% of their...