Characteristics of patients diagnosed with psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (PNES) who request reinstatement of their driving privileges.

Rationale: Patients who experience seizures, including PNES, are usually advised to discontinue driving, or have their driving privileges revoked until a determined period of seizure-freedom is achieved. In this retrospective study, patients with PNES who requested driving privileges or reported having resumed driving were compared to those who did not on measures of depression, anxiety, PTSD, and cognitive flexibility/motor speed.

Methods: DiagnosisofPNESwasconfirmedwithvideo-EEG.

A comparison of patients with epileptic seizures (ES) versus those with psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (PNES) on measures of alexithymia, mood, and anxiety.

Objective: To compare persons with epilepsy (PWE) to those with psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (PNES) on measures of depression, anxiety, and alexithymia subscales (i.e., difficulty identifying emotions, difficulty describing emotions, and external-oriented thinking).

Patients with late onset psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (PNES): How do they compare to those with younger onset?

Objective: To determine whether patients who experienced their first psychogenic non-epileptic seizure (PNES) at 50 years or older differed from those who developed PNES at a younger age, in terms of demographic, social/clinical as well as psychological measures.

Background: The typical age for PNES onset is roughly between 20 and 40 years of age. Only a handful of studies have examined samples with PNES onset at an older age and therefore information about these individuals is limited.

Depression, anxiety, and clinical history in Spanish-speaking American patients with psychogenic nonepileptic seizures (PNES) compared with Spanish-speaking American patients with epilepsy.

Objective: The objective of this study was to compare Spanish-speaking American patients with epilepsy to Spanish-speaking American patients with psychogenic nonepileptic seizures (PNES) on depression, anxiety, and other clinical variables.

Background: Research on Spanish-speaking American patients with epilepsy or PNES is relatively infrequent, with only a few studies on psychopathology in these two patient groups. Studies of English-speaking patients indicate that those with PNES present with greater depression and anxiety and report poorer quality of life (QOL) when compared with persons with epilepsy (PWEs).

Dissociation and other clinical phenomena in youth with psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (PNES) compared to youth with epilepsy.

Purpose: To compare youth with psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (PNES) to youth with epilepsy on demographic and clinical features and the Trauma Symptom Checklist for Children (TSCC).

Method: A retrospective study of 31 patients; 15 patients with PNES (11 females) and 16 patients with epilepsy (8 females) collected consecutively between 2014-2018. Demographic and clinical information (age of seizure onset, life adversities, individual/family psychiatric history, etc.

Psychological trauma, somatization, dissociation, and psychiatric comorbidities in patients with psychogenic nonepileptic seizures compared with those in patients with intractable partial epilepsy.

Objective: The objective of this study was to compare patients with intractable epilepsy with patients with psychogenic nonepileptic seizures (PNES) on the presence of psychological traumas, clinical factors, and psychological measures of somatization and dissociation.

Background: Several studies have reported a high prevalence of psychological trauma in patients with PNES, while less have examined the prevalence of psychological trauma in patients with epilepsy and compared both groups. Reports have been somewhat divergent with some describing significantly higher prevalence in physical abuse, others, in emotional abuse/neglect, and others, in sexual abuse in patients with PNES compared with those in patients with epilepsy.

Are there gender differences in those diagnosed with psychogenic nonepileptic seizures?

Objective: The objective of the study was to determine whether male and female populations of patients with psychogenic nonepileptic seizures (PNES) differ, in terms of demographic, social/clinical, and etiological factors as well as psychological measures.

Background: Psychogenic nonepileptic seizures are overrepresented by females; therefore, information about PNES in males is limited. Only a handful of studies have examined PNES and gender, and of those, one was a literature review and with the exception of two, most have had small sample sizes.

The effects of lacosamide on cognition, quality-of-life measures, and quality of life in patients with refractory partial epilepsy.

Objective: The objective of this study was to examine cognitive and quality-of-life measures/quality of life outcomes with adjunctive lacosamide therapy in patients with treatment-resistant partial epilepsy.

Methods: This was a prospective, open-label, nonblinded, adjunctive therapy test-retest (within subjects) study of patients with treatment-resistant partial epilepsy in which outcome (cognitive functioning and mood/quality of life) was measured in the same subject before and after adjunctive lacosamide administration for 24weeks. The cognitive assessment included the following: Controlled Oral Word Association Test, Buschke Selective Reminding Test, Brief Visuospatial Memory Test-Revised, Stroop Color Word Test, Symbol Digit Modalities Test, Digit Span, Digit Cancellation, and Trails A and B.

A nonverbal learning disability in a case of central hypoventilation syndrome without a PHOX2B gene mutation.

This study examines the neuropsychological profile of a boy with congenital central hypoventilation syndrome (CCHS) without a paired-like homeobox gene (PHOX2B) mutation. CCHS is a rare disorder of autonomic nervous system development characterized by an impaired ventilatory response to hypercarbia and hypoxemia. Mild intellectual deficits are common but a specific cognitive profile is not established in CCHS.