non epileptic

Why Are So Many Doctors Uncomfortable with the Psychogenic in PNES?

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Empathetic Reformers? The doctors leading the recent push to rename PNES—most visibly in the 2025 ILAE Task Force proposal for “functional/dissociative seizures (F/DS)” and the American Academy of Neurology’s 2025 guideline that settled on “functional seizures”—often frame the change as patient-centered and anti-stigma. They claim that the word “psychogenic” makes patients feel blamed, that it […]

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“Functional Seizures”? “So, I still have seizures, right?” — Benbadis’ 2020 warning is more relevant than ever

Leave a Comment / 2026, News, Uncategorized /

In 2020, epileptologist Selim R. Benbadis published a short but pointed letter to the editor in Epilepsy & Behavior: “Functional seizures? ‘So I still have seizures, right? The piece was in response to the growing enthusiasm for replacing “psychogenic nonepileptic seizures” (PNES) with the term “functional seizures” (or FS). Benbadis pushed back against this rebranding;

“Functional Seizures”? “So, I still have seizures, right?” — Benbadis’ 2020 warning is more relevant than ever Read More »

“De-Psychiatrizing” FND: Why it isn’t as straightforward as hoped— especially when including psychogenic nonepileptic seizures (PNES)

Leave a Comment / 2026, News /

In their 2026 article “Approach to the Patient with FND: Evaluation, Diagnosis, and Developing a Treatment Plan,” published in Seminars in Neurology, Michael Daniel DeDominicis and Sarah Lidstone propose reframing functional neurological disorder (FND) as a brain network disorder involving altered predictive processing, attention, and sense of agency. They argue that moving away from older

“De-Psychiatrizing” FND: Why it isn’t as straightforward as hoped— especially when including psychogenic nonepileptic seizures (PNES) Read More »

Unintended consequences of replacing psychogenic nonepileptic seizures (PNES) with functional seizures

Leave a Comment / 2026, News /

With new advances in understanding PNES, there have been changes in how the diagnosis is explained and what the condition itself is named. The shift, recommended by some professionals in the field, emphasizes the biological aspects of the disorder, removes reference to psychological elements (functional seizures), and seemingly provides a wider foundation for how to

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Saving Stripes: A book about nonepileptic seizures (PNES) and a zoo

Leave a Comment / 2026, News, nonepileptic /

I knew something was off as soon as I was standing at the edge of the fence. The female, Sasha, always came up to the fence to say hello to me. A small crowd had gathered in front of their enclosure. My eyes darted around, trying to find out what was wrong. I saw the male, Nico, sleeping on

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Choosing “functional seizures” over PNES: what might happen

Leave a Comment / 2025, News, nonepileptic, Uncategorized /

Abandoning the term “psychogenic nonepileptic seizures” (PNES) in favor of “functional (dissociative) seizures” or simply “functional seizures” needs to be examined. We need to consider possible unintended negative consequences of this name change. My sense of urgency comes from a troubling scenario I foresee. Read on and feel free to challenge me on this or

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Functional Seizures and Epilepsy: My dual diagnosis

Leave a Comment / 2025, News /

The nonepileptic seizure Blog has invited author, Linda McClure, to tell us about her book “Mind Games.” It walks the reader through the experience of living with epilepsy and psychogenic nonepileptic seizures (PNES), also known as functional/dissociative seizures. This is a unique group of patients, often excluded from research and that can be difficult to

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Why it’s so important that adults living with psychogenic nonepileptic seizures (PNES) engage in self-care

2 Comments / 2025, News /

More often than not, when I first meet my patients, it is evident that most of their lifetimes, self-care has been left by the wayside. My patients have been surviving, working hard, taking care of others, basically treading water for years.  And this has shortchanged them in the process.   As could be expected, at some

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Driving, depression, and psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (PNES)

Leave a Comment / 2025, News, Uncategorized /

The three items listed in the title of this blog post might seem unrelated but they  were part of an article that was published last month. The article drew some useful and thought-provoking conclusions that might be useful for clinicians working with PNES. The study described in “Characteristics of patients diagnosed with psychogenic non-epileptic seizures

Driving, depression, and psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (PNES) Read More »

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