The question I hear from almost all my patients who have received the diagnosis of psychogenic seizures the first few times we meet is: “How can I have a stress condition if I am not feeling at all stressed? The answer is: There is a difference between feeling stressed and being under stress. And developing …
For the past year and a half I have been writing a book on psychogenic seizures for those living with PNES as well as their caregivers and the professionals who work with them. As we all know, psychogenic seizures look very much like epileptic seizures, but are not triggered by electrical anomalies in the brain …
An article came out earlier this week in USA Today that underscored a very serious problem that persons with psychogenic non epileptic seizures (and other mental health conditions) face. Only half of psychiatrists accept insurance which means that if you need treatment you need to be prepared to pay large out-of-pocket fees. This is not …
Katie is 22 years old and will graduate from college this spring. She has also had psychogenic non-epileptic seizures for 4 years. She contacted me because she wants to be a voice and advocate for PNES, to help others realize they are not alone and that there is hope, and to make positive strides for …
Katie shares her experience of living with psychogenic seizures for 4 years Read More »
In July 2013, we published an article in the Journal Epilepsy and Behavior looking at: Psychological trauma in patients with psychogenic nonepileptic seizures: Trauma characteristics and those who develop PTSD. The full article can be found here: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1525505013001819). We found that 45 out of 61 (73.8%) patients reported experiencing at least one traumatic event in …
I have psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (PNES) but was never traumatized: Is this you? Read More »
In June and July of this year I blogged on how poor standard of care is in the US for many patients diagnosed with psychogenic non-epileptic seizures. However, this month I am happy to write about a positive experience I had at Overlook Hospital of Summit, New Jersey. In the summer, I blogged about deficient …
Creating proper treatment programs for psychogenic non-epileptic seizures in the US Read More »
What unites patients with PNES into a single category? The fact that they have abnormal behaviors and changes in consciousness that resemble an epileptic seizure, but that are in fact non-epileptic as per EEG? However, right about there is where the similarity ends. To bunch all of PNES patients into one bag and hope to …
In order for psychotherapy to have any chance of working, the psychologist needs to have targets to work on and goals for change. The most obvious goal for change in PNES is for the behavioral episodes (i.e. non-epileptic seizures) to stop. In reality, there are a number of other important goals in treating PNES but …
In December of 2012, the neuropsychology team from the Northeast Regional Epilepsy Group will present some interesting early findings about patients with psychogenic non-epileptic seizures as compared to patients with epilepsy. The study compared executive functions (planning and organizing, problem solving, attention, working memory, mental flexibility, set shifting) in patients with psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (PNES) …
Psychogenic non-epileptic seizures: what is neuropsychology showing us? Read More »
A few months back I wrote on my Navigating Epilepsy Blog about stigma in epilepsy. I’m writing on the same topic with regards to psychogenic non epileptic seizures because non-epileptic patients face this kind of stigma too. What is stigma?? According to www.dictionary.reference.com, it’s “a mark of disgrace; a stain or reproach, as on one’s …
Psychogenic non-epileptic seizures: stigma and strength in numbers Read More »
