Virtual psychogenic non-epileptic seizures conference for patients, loved ones and their clinicians: Update on current treatments for PNES in adults and children

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, imagine how much excitement we feel in announcing that on April 29 NEREG will once again be hosting its Annual PNES (7^th) conference!  This is significant because these annual conferences on psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (PNES) had become a tradition and allowed patients, their family members, and clinicians to have access to updated content on PNES and access to experts in the field every year.

So how will the 7^th annual PNES conference look?

Some things remain the same: As always, the event is free of charge, registrations are coming in from across the US and abroad, and the conference features national leading experts in PNES who will also be able to answer questions from the audience.

Some things have changed: This year’s annual conference on PNES will be virtual only.  At least for this year, we will not have the pleasure of seeing each other face-to-face but truth be told, Zoom is pretty handy and allows those who live far away to attend without having to travel and pay for costly lodgings.  Also, the conference will feature three talks that will focus only on updates in treatments so it will be shorter than previous conferences and clinicians will not have the option of earning continuing education credits (sorry!).

Our topics and schedule will be as follow:

9:00 – 9:30 Welcome and Program Introduction – Lorna Myers, Ph.D., Northeast Regional Epilepsy Group
9:30-10:15PM Mindfulness-based psychotherapy for PNES — Dr. Gaston Baslet, Brigham and Women’s
10:20-11:05 Treating patients who present with both PNES and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) – Lorna Myers, Ph.D., Northeast Regional Epilepsy Group
11:10-11:55 The treatment of psychogenic Non-Epileptic Seizures in Children and Adolescents — Julia Doss, Psy.D., Doss Health Psychology
12-12:45: Round table for discussion, questions, and other resources

Please note, that something that has not changed is that as has become tradition, at the end of the day, all who wish to remain are invited to an informal “round table” gathering for audience members to continue networking and connecting with the speakers.  Over the years this has become the most interesting and stimulating part of the day which often leads to members leaving with multiple ideas and plans for the future. We will see how it turns out when the round table is virtual….

We hope to see many of you there on April 29 (Saturday)!

To register go here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZwsd-2qrDkjGdPGzNrsrjHkTRJNry-TY50F