© 2004 BMJ Publishing Group Ltd
EDITORIAL COMMENTARY
Psychogenic non-epileptic seizures
Assessment of patients with psychogenic non-epileptic seizures
Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
L H Goldstein
Department of Psychology, PO77, Institute of Psychiatry, De Crespigny Park, London SE5 8AF, UK; l.goldstein{at}iop.kcl.ac.uk
Psychogenic non-epileptic seizures pose a management problem
Keywords: psychogenic non-epileptic seizures; epilepsy; personality disorder
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
Psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (PNES), while superficially resembling epileptic seizures, are not accompanied by the abnormal electrical discharges associated with epilepsy and cannot be explained by other medical conditions. Instead they are psychologically determined and, as patients with PNES may be misdiagnosed as having epilepsy, this disorder poses a considerable management problem. The development of a better understanding of the psychiatric characteristics of PNES patients and other risk factors associated with having PNES may not only assist, along with medical investigations, in the correct diagnosis of patients’ attacks, but may also inform effective treatment.
Though personality disorder has been diagnosed in very variable proportions of PNES patients, and research in this area is complicated by the use of different psychiatric classification systems and measures, the most common diagnoses associated with PNES have been borderline, histrionic, avoidant, and antisocial personality disorder.1 Given that not all PNES patients satisfy formal
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This article has been cited by other articles:
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Mellers, J D C
(2005). The approach to patients with "non-epileptic seizures". Postgrad. Med. J.
81: 498-504
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