Psychogenic non-epileptic seizures: our video-EEG experience.

Objective: The aim of our study was to assess the number of psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (PNES) in our patients with a refractory seizure disorder, to determine the 'typical' PNES semiology using video-EEG monitoring and describe other PNES parameters.

Methods: We evaluated prospectively 596 patients with pharmacoresistant seizures. All these patients underwent continuous video-EEG monitoring.

Is pseudo-intractability in population of patients with epilepsy still alive in the 21st century? Audit of 100 seizure-free patients, referred with the diagnosis of pharmacoresistant epilepsy.

Objective: There is no universally accepted definition of pseudo-intractable epilepsy. Pseudo-intractability means that the resistance to treatment is, in fact, caused by clinical errors. The purpose of our study was to identify the reasons for intractability and subsequent effective therapeutic management approaches in a group of patients with established pseudo-intractable epilepsy.

Psychogenic non-epileptic seizures, prospective clinical experience: diagnosis, clinical features, risk factors, psychiatric comorbidity, treatment outcome.

In our study, we evaluated 249 patients with refractory seizures using video-EEG monitoring. In this sample, we identified 56 (22.5%) patients with psychogenic non-epileptic seizures - PNES only.

Treatment of Interictal Depression with Citalopram in Patients with Epilepsy.

The purpose of this study is to assess the efficacy and safety of the selective serotonin-reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) citalopram in depressed epileptic patients. We evaluated 43 epileptic patients who suffered from depression and whose total score on the 21 items of the Hamilton Scale for Depression (HAMD 21) exceeded 15 points. These patients were examined by the psychiatrist and scaled before treatment and after 4 and 8 weeks of treatment with citalopram.

Synaptic vesicle size and shape profile in the kindling model of epileptogenesis.

Excitatory synapses were studied in the dentate gyrus ipsilateral to stimulated entorhinal cortex in fully kindled rats 2 weeks after the last (3rd) stage 5 seizure. In previous studies of the same model marked redistribution of synaptic vesicles to a 'strategic position' in the vicinity of the synaptic cleft and a significant enlargement of postsynaptic element were described. In this study the size and shape of synaptic vesicles were evaluated in three zones parallel to the presynaptic membrane of the synaptic cleft.