Publications by authors named "Marcy Forgey"
Article Synopsis
- The study investigates factors influencing urgent health-care use in families with children diagnosed with pediatric psychogenic nonepileptic seizures (PNES), a condition that imposes a heavy burden on health services.
- Researchers analyzed data from 47 children with PNES and 25 sibling controls, focusing on how child coping styles and parental bonding styles affect emergency room visits and hospitalizations.
- Findings suggest that higher health-care use correlates with specific coping strategies and negative parental bonding perceptions, indicating that improving coping skills and parental responses may help reduce urgent health-care needs in these families.
Objectives: This study examined the risk factors for learning problems (LP) in pediatric psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (PNES) and their specificity by comparing psychopathology, medical, cognitive/linguistic/achievement, bullying history, and parent education variables between subjects with PNES with and without LP and between subjects with PNES and siblings with LP.
Methods: 55 subjects with PNES and 35 siblings, aged 8-18years, underwent cognitive, linguistic, and achievement testing, and completed somatization and anxiety sensitivity questionnaires. A semi-structured psychiatric interview about the child was administered to each subject and parent.
Purpose: To examine the risk factors for internalizing (anxiety, depression) and posttraumatic stress (PTSD) disorders, somatization, and anxiety sensitivity (AS) in youth with psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (PNES).
Methods: 55 probands with PNES and 35 siblings, aged 8-18 years, underwent a psychiatric interview, cognitive and language testing, and completed somatization and AS questionnaires. Parents provided the subjects' medical, psychiatric, family, and adversity history information.
Article Synopsis
- The study investigates psychogenic nonepileptic seizures (PNES) in youth, focusing on the unique biopsychosocial risk factors that distinguish affected individuals from their siblings.
- The research involved 55 diagnosed PNES youths and 35 sibling controls, utilizing video EEGs, psychiatric assessments, and various self-reports to gather data.
- Results revealed that PNES youths had significantly more medical, neurological, and psychiatric issues, as well as higher anxiety sensitivity and traumatic experiences, pointing to specific vulnerabilities associated with PNES.
Medically ill adolescents are at increased risk for psychological distress and/or functional impairment. However, there are few research studies examining the optimal psychiatric treatments for this population. Psychiatric medication recommendations are largely based on studies of youth with a primary psychiatric disorder, adult studies, hypothesized mechanisms of action, and/or clinical experience.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThough posttraumatic epilepsy (PTE) is a prominent sequela of traumatic brain injury (TBI), other nonepileptic phenomena also warrant consideration. Within two UCLA pediatric TBI cohorts, we categorized five spell types: 1) PTE; 2) Epilepsy with other potential etiologies (cortical dysplasia, primary generalized); 3) Psychopathology; 4) Behavior misinterpreted as seizures; and 5) Other neurologic events. The two cohort subsets differed slightly in injury severity, but they were otherwise similar.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMedically ill children are often exposed to traumatizing situations within the medical setting. Approximately 25-30 % of medically ill children develop posttraumatic stress symptoms and 10-20 % of them meet criteria for posttraumatic stress disorder. Parents of medically ill children are at even higher risk for posttraumatic stress symptoms.
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