Rationale: Epilepsy and psychogenic nonepileptic spells (PNES) can coexist, often posing diagnostic and therapeutic challenges. We sought to identify clinical and historical characteristics of two groups of patients, those with coexisting epilepsy and PNES and those with PNES alone, and determine the prevalence of coexisting epilepsy/PNES with strict diagnostic criteria in a large group of epilepsy monitoring unit (EMU) patients.
Methods: We reviewed the medical records of all consecutive patients admitted to the Vanderbilt University Medical Center Adult EMU between July 1, 2007 and June 30, 2012.