Dual diagnosis of epilepsy and dissociative seizures: Prescription patterns, feasibility and safety of rationalising antiseizure medication.

Background: Patients with a dual-diagnosis of epilepsy and dissociative seizures (DS) have received far less attention than those with single pathology. Anti-seizure medication (ASM) prescription patterns and safety of rationalisation have not been reviewed.

Methods: We undertook a retrospective cohort study of all patients with a dual-diagnosis admitted to the Scottish Epilepsy Centre between 2012-2020.

Subjective seizure symptom reporting in functional/dissociative seizures and epilepsy: Effects of sampling technique and patient characteristics.

Background: Differences in subjectively reportable ictal experiences between epilepsy and functional/dissociative seizures (FDS) have received less attention than visible manifestations. Patients with FDS (pwFDS) tend to report seizure symptoms differently than patients with epilepsy (pwE). The effects of symptom elicitation method and mediation by psychopathological traits have not been examined and may aid in differentiating the disorders.

Alcohol and the central nervous system.

Ethanol use is common to most cultures but with varying doses and to varying extents. While research has focused on the effects on the liver, alcohol exerts a range of actions on the function and structure of the nervous system. In the central nervous system (CNS) it can provoke or exacerbate neurological and psychiatric disease; its effects on the peripheral nervous system are not included in this review.

How to do things with words: Two seminars on the naming of functional (psychogenic, non-epileptic, dissociative, conversion, …) seizures.

Amongst the most important conditions in the differential diagnosis of epilepsy is the one that manifests as paroxysms of altered behaviour, awareness, sensation or sense of bodily control in ways that often resemble epileptic seizures, but without the abnormal excessive or synchronous electrical activity in the brain that defines these. Despite this importance, there remains little agreement - and frequent debate - on what to call this condition, known inter alia as psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (PNES), dissociative seizures (DS), functional seizures (FS), non-epileptic attack disorder (NEAD), pseudoseizures, conversion disorder with seizures, and by many other labels besides. This choice of terminology is not merely academic - it affects patients' response to and understanding of their diagnosis, and their ability to navigate health care systems.

Anti-NMDAR encephalitis for psychiatrists: the essentials.

Anti-N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) encephalitis predominantly presents with psychiatric symptoms. Psychiatrists need to be alert to this diagnostic possibility, especially in female adolescents and young adults, as exemplified by the real (de-identified) case outlined below. Earlier diagnosis and immunotherapy improves long-term outcomes.