The Sixth annual Northeast Regional Epilepsy Group conference on psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (PNES) will be held in Manhattan, NY

  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 in from across the US and some have even come in...

Frozen in time: trauma and psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (PNES)

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 was the trigger for her PNES; while she thought that she had dealt with that event and...

Long term vs. short term: when is one preferable to the other in the treatment of psychogenic non-epileptic seizures?

African common toad with warts 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 and intense) for years.  When I asked what sort of treatment they were using,...

Psychogenic non-epileptic seizures: Fifth Annual conference held in New Jersey in 2018

This past Saturday, we held a historic annual conference on psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (PNES)! Historic, for many reasons, one of which is because it was the FIFTH year running that we have hosted this meeting. And as we have now become accustomed, it was successful on many, many levels and left us all feeling energized. There were two especially novel and exciting changes this year. We heard and responded...

Are psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (PNES) the same in men and women?

In 2017, we set about trying to answer a question that had been on my mind for a few years. The query was whether women and men with PNES were the same in all respects or different, and if they were different, in what ways. The reason answering this question is important is because better understanding differences in the general PNES classification can help clinicians know better what factors to keep an eye open...