It does not involve changes in electrical impulses in the brain. In the general population, the group suggests PNES may affect 2—33 people in every , Symptoms may include :.
In addition, a person who has experienced a PNES may not become drowsy after, but an individual who has an epileptic seizure will usually sleep after the event. However, not all PNES events follow this pattern — some people experience only a sudden and brief loss of awareness without other symptoms.
PNES tends to affect people who have experienced trauma or who have a mental health condition or psychological stress. The stress may be due to a single traumatic event or an underlying chronic condition. Experts refer to PNES as a conversion disorder, which means the person is unaware of what is happening and is not consciously pretending to have a seizure.
Possible underlying conditions include :. Therefore, it is essential to receive a proper diagnosis and treatment. Diagnosing PNES can be difficult. A doctor is not usually present to witness a seizure, and the symptoms the individual describes will often match those of an epileptic seizure. Often, a healthcare professional will diagnose epilepsy and only consider PNES when epilepsy medications are not effective.
Some people may have both. If a person has frequent seizures that do not respond to epilepsy medication, a doctor may recommend staying in a specialty care unit.
They can also watch the video to observe any physical signs. The doctor may also wish to rule out other conditions that can cause similar symptoms, such as :. If a person has previously received a diagnosis of epilepsy and is using drugs to manage this, a doctor should ensure this individual stops taking them. These medications are unlikely to help and could be harmful if a person does not need them.
A team of psychologists, psychiatrists, and neurologists may work together to form a correct diagnosis and suitable treatment. Treatment for PNES will often focus on managing the symptoms of any mental health conditions or other stress factors. Counselling and CBT are options that may help. PNES can be challenging to treat if the person is unaware of how the seizures affect them. Often, the only way to know this is through family or friends. A psychiatrist will usually carry out a formal assessment to help determine the source of the trauma, disorder, or stress.
They can then recommend treatment specific to the underlying condition. It is important to note that the diagnosis of PNES may be difficult initially for several reasons. PNES are attacks that may look like epileptic seizures but are not caused by abnormal brain electrical discharges.
Instead, they are a manifestation of psychological distress. PNES are not a unique disorder but are a specific type of a larger group of psychiatric conditions that manifest as physical symptoms. PNES can also be considered dissociative disorders. Frequently, people with PNES may look like they are experiencing generalized convulsions similar to tonic-clonic seizures with falling and shaking.
Less frequently, PNES may mimic absence seizures or focal impaired awarneness previously called complex partial seizures. A physician may suspect PNES when the seizures have unusual features, such as type of movements, duration, triggers, and frequency. As for other somatic symptom disorders, a specific traumatic event, such as physical or sexual abuse, incest, divorce, death of a loved one, or other great loss or sudden change, can be identified in some people with PNES. According to Benbadis, while EEGs are helpful in the diagnosis of epilepsy, they are often normal in people with proven epilepsy and cannot be used alone as a diagnostic tool for epilepsy.
Kelley herself has been able to circumvent this frustration as she has adopted a trauma-focused clinical approach, which not only serves her well as a clinician, but also helps her patients with PNES to overcome their seizures.
She postulates that when a person experiences trauma such as physical abuse, sexual abuse, witness to violence , his or her body can absorb this trauma. EMDR integrates elements of many psychotherapies including psychodynamic, cognitive behavioral, interpersonal, experiential, and body-centered therapies.
During EMDR the client attends to past and present experiences in brief sequential doses while simultaneously focusing on an external stimulus. Psychogenic seizures may occur in any age group. Women are three times more likely than men to have PNES. It is not always clear why someone develops PNES. Conditions associated with PNES. Distinguishing between epilepsy and PNES is a challenge. PNES is often misdiagnosed as epilepsy.
This makes the true cause of peculiar seizure-like activity very difficult to sort out. This grey area is stressful for patients and their loved ones, who may feel uncertain about whether the seizures will ever resolve.
There are a few strategies that help to distinguish epileptic seizures from PNES:. Learning about this conversion disorder often helps with recovery. Many people who suffer from PNES initially react to a diagnosis of any conversion disorder with disbelief, denial, anger, and even hostility.
However, people who experience pseudo-seizures are truly suffering, and, once the diagnosis sinks in, there is often a sense of relief that the condition is not life-threatening. According to some estimates, a few people with PNES become free of symptoms after the diagnosis is made.
While there are many other ways to help distinguish between a psychogenic and an epileptic seizure, none of them is completely foolproof. If you are not sure whether you or your loved one is suffering from epilepsy , PNES, or both, this can be a very stressful time. If it turns out that you have had pseudo-seizures, do not take this as a sign of weakness or as an accusation of faking.
The brain can produce unpredictable behavior patterns, particularly if you have had to live with illness or stress for a prolonged period of time. Rest assured that with proper treatment, you can recover from pseudo-seizures.
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