Efficacy and safety of pregabalin in refractory focal epilepsy with and without comorbid anxiety disorders - results of an open-label, parallel group, investigator-initiated, proof-of-concept study.

Anxiety disorders are prevalent in people with epilepsy and severely influence daily living and quality of life. Pregabalin (PGB) is licensed in Germany for the add on-treatment of focal epilepsy and for generalized anxiety disorder in adults. To our knowledge, PGB has not been studied before in patients with epilepsy and comorbid anxiety disorder.

Informing patients about the impact of provocation methods increases the rate of psychogenic nonepileptic seizures during EEG recording.

Observation of psychogenic nonepileptic seizures (PNESs) during video-EEG represents the diagnostic gold standard for PNESs. Different provocative techniques have been used to increase PNES frequency during EEG. These techniques include placebo administration, suggestion strategies, or both.

Ictal autoscopic phenomena and near death experiences: a study of five patients with ictal autoscopies.

Autoscopic phenomena in general may-among other conditions-occur during epileptic seizures and near death experiences. We set the hypothesis that ictal autoscopic phenomena and near death experiences have a similar semiology as measured by the Near Death Experience Questionnaire. We also investigated whether patients with aura before temporal lobe seizures with or without autoscopic phenomena could be distinguished by this questionnaire.

Unilateral autoscopic phenomena as a lateralizing sign in focal epilepsy.

Positive autoscopic phenomena - autoscopy, heautoscopy and out-of-body experience - may occur in a variety of diseases and also in physiological conditions. They are a rare but probably underreported phenomenon in focal epilepsies. Here, we investigate whether ictal lateralized autoscopic phenomena give lateralizing information about the underlying epileptic focus.

Prevalence of anxiety disorders in patients with refractory focal epilepsy--a prospective clinic based survey.

Comorbid anxiety disorders severely affect daily living and quality of life in patients with epilepsy. We evaluated 97 consecutive outpatients (41.2% male, mean age=42.