For many it may have taken months to years to reach the point of lying in the hospital bed hearing the words: you don’t have “epilepsy,” you have something we call “psychogenic non-epileptic seizures” or “non-epileptic attack disorder.” Getting here may have involved being seen by more than one doctor, receiving all sorts of other […]
I remember like it was yesterday, while still a fellow in training, an attending doctor said: Lorna, when you start publishing in the future, make sure you don’t just publish noise. When I asked what he meant by that, he explained that too many articles published in scientific journals are just noise, static like on
This won’t be a surprise to many patients who have been diagnosed with PNES but some of you may be astonished to read: Very little if anything. Psychogenic non-epileptic seizures can go misdiagnosed for an average of 7.2 years.1 In an attempt to remedy this devastating delay, the National Association of Epilepsy Centers-NAEC has established
In the last couple of weeks, an article started to appear in different social media outlets in which a neurologist was quoted as saying that an important contributing factor in functional illnesses (including seizures and paralysis) in children is that their parents are showering the children with “too much love and attention.” http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/hay-festival/11640715/Parents-can-be-too-nice-to-their-children-neurologist-warns.html There seems
This weekend, I was reading a paper by Dr. Gaston Baslet and his colleagues (Treatment of Psychogenic non-epileptic seizures: Updated review and findings from our mindfulness-based intervention case series, 2014 Clinical EEG and Neuroscience). On page 9 the authors discuss something that was not the main topic of the paper, but that struck me as worthy
Challenges in the management of Psychogenic seizures: Are we playing a role in this? Read More »
A month ago, we were still in the throes of planning our first conference on psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (PNES). We had PNES brochures printed up, we had ordered many copies of “Psychogenic non-epileptic Seizures: A Guide” to give out at the registration desk, we had purple and teal charms ready, and all our speakers were
A historic meeting in Mahwah, NJ shines a light on psychogenic non-epileptic seizures Read More »
My name is JJ and I am 22. My seizures have been a sporadic problem since I was 13. They really became a problem December 2013. I had quit drinking in September, I later discovered my alcoholism was suppressing my seizures. My seizures became unbearable, I was unable to do the things I used
Psychogenic non-epileptic seizures: Love and Light Read More »
My psychogenic seizures began like this: I was exposed to “Workplace Bullying.” Even though I had exemplary yearly evaluations my supervisor began the bullying and as it increased I reported it to the head boss. They planned to have 5 back to 5 meetings in one day with him and others (there’s a term for
Psychogenic non-epileptic seizures: Ming shares her story of living with PNES Read More »
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
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 »
