What is this?The Lorna Myers PNES Scholarship Fund is a dedicated financial aid program graciously administered by Epilepsy Alliance America and supported financially by Dr. Lorna Myers who donates all royalties from the sales of her book “Psychogenic nonepileptic seizures: A guide” to the scholarship. This scholarship supports students who reside in the US and […]
Functional seizures: Sanitized terminological shifts may seem progressive but can be harmful Late last year, an ILAE Task Force proposal (Hingray et al., 2025) was published, urging that the term “psychogenic nonepileptic seizures (PNES)” be replaced with the new and improved “functional/dissociative seizures (F/DS).” It is my understanding that some of the ILAE task force
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
Choosing “functional seizures” over PNES: what might happen Read More »
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 »
I like a lot of things about the summer months including the warmer weather, the longer days, the fact that New York City becomes less crowded, traveling, and sitting or lying outside resting and catching some sunrays. But what I especially enjoy about the summer is that I get to read the books that have
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 »
For six years straight, the Northeast Regional Epilepsy Group (NEREG), hosted an annual PNES conference for patients, caregivers, and in the last few years, for health professionals too. Our last and sixth conference was held in 2019 and then, as we all know, the world ground to a halt due to the 2020 pandemic. So,
In a few weeks, a new book on PNES is going to be published and will be called: The Psychogenic Non-Epileptic Seizures (also known as dissociative seizures) Pocketbook. The word “pocketbook” is in its title because it is meant to be just that: a book that a clinician might carry in her/his pocket for
For almost 20 years, I have been a school nurse. During one of my first years as a school nurse, I met a student with what health care providers were then calling pseudoseizures. While many school personnel were very supportive of this student, there were just as many who were NOT. I heard comments
Students living with psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (PNES)-a new study Read More »
