The first time I saw a patient diagnosed with PNES was when I was a neuropsychology fellow at an epilepsy center over 20 years ago. Early one morning, I was in a group of trainees and staff and we were visiting patients on rounds with the attending doctor. Before entering one of the rooms, the doctor […]
The Psychogenic Nonepileptic Seizure Pocketbook: Why I wrote it Read More »
Every year, all profits from the sale of “Psychogenic non-epileptic seizures: A guide” are donated to Epilepsy Alliance America, a wonderful foundation that hosts the Lorna Myers PNES Scholarship. This award is offered to any person living in the USA and who has a diagnosis of psychogenic non-epileptic seizures. The money that is granted can
Join me in congratulating the 2023 Lorna Myers PNES Scholarship awardees! Read More »
I get asked about service dogs for PNES quite a bit and over the last few years, I have had the opportunity to observe my patients’ service dogs and emotional support animals in action. The ones who are really well-trained have left me very impressed at how useful they are in ensuring safety and also
This feature article was just published by the International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE) and summarizes meetings that took place last year. https://www.newswise.com/articles/what-should-we-call-psychogenic-non-epileptic-seizures Note: I will continue to call PNES by this name below since we do not have a better term yet. Why is this important what we call this disorder, you might ask?
Spoiler alert: Important in patients who have PNES and high alexithymia What is alexithymia? Basically, it is, not having words for emotions (a=not having, lexi=word, thymia=emotion) or in other words, having a hard time identifying and describing feelings. In psychology it is associated with two concepts: emotional knowledge (EK) and emotional regulation (ER). EK has
In recent months, I have been asked by a few patients who have been diagnosed with PNES (dissociative seizures) whether it is safe to wear a mask with PNES. On one hand, it is becoming obligatory to wear masks in some states. We have all seen those signs that say: “If you come into this
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
Kanaan and Craig recently published an article “Conversion disorders and the trouble with trauma” (see reference at the bottom of this page) in which they present the reader with a cogent overview of the current debate of whether conversion disorder should be conceptualized as “psychogenic” or instead “as a yet unexplained neurological disorder.” They argue,
Recent article: Conversion disorder and the trouble with trauma Read More »
In June, our team (Myers, Trobliger, Bortnik, Zeng, Segal and Lancman) published: “Dissociation and other clinical phenomena in youth with psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (PNES) compared to youth with epilepsy” in the peer-reviewed journal Seizure: European Journal of Epilepsy. The article had some very interesting findings which I will discuss below. This paper compared 15 youth
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
A book on psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (PNES) in the 19th Century Read More »
