On October 19, 2019, we will hold our now historic annual conference on psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (PNES). This will be the sixth year running that we offer this educational program on psychogenic non-epileptic seizures for patients, loved ones, and health professionals. As always, the event is free of charge. As always, registrations are streaming […]
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
This poem was shared by someone who has lived with PNES. Her first seizure occurred with no warning while she was at work. After an initial diagnosis of epilepsy, rounds of medicine, and realizing that medication was not stopping the seizures, she was diagnosed with PNES. A traumatic event that occurred to her decades before
Frozen in time: trauma and psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (PNES) Read More »
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 »
Today I want to write about an experience I had a few weeks ago. I was speaking with some of my colleagues at a conference about working with patients who are diagnosed with PNES. Several of them explained that they had been working with patients who had been having seizures (some of them very frequent
This month, researchers from Argentina (Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, de la Universidad de Buenos Aires y del ENyS) together with Dr. Lorna Myers (Director, Psychogenic Non-epileptic Seizures Program at the Northeast Regional Epilepsy Group) published an article in the Epilepsy and Behavior Journal: “Long-term outcome in a sample of underprivileged patients with psychogenic nonepileptic
Late last year, we posted a survey on the homepage of www.nonepilepticseizures.com that addresses the age-old question: what should we call these particular non-epileptic episodes? The difference in this blog post is that we will hear from non-professional survey voters and not just the researchers. If you have followed this blog, you might recall that
I’m Clea, the director, producer and editor of dis-sociated, the first feature-length documentary about Dissociative Seizures which is now available to watch on YouTube: I was inspired to create this documentary after my friend developed mysterious absence-like seizures, which doctors were unable to explain or prevent. Once my friend finally received a diagnosis, her life
“‘dis-sociated’ – The first ever feature documentary on PNES Read More »
There is one thing we can be sure of: if we are going to be successful in disseminating information and educating the public (professional and general) about PNES, we need to make sure it is reported on and written about in as many publications and venues as possible. So, imagine my satisfaction in reading and
