SUDEP in patients with epilepsy and nonepileptic seizures.

We report 13 SUDEP cases in the North American SUDEP Registry with both psychogenic nonepileptic seizures (PNES) and epileptic seizures (ES) among a consecutive series of 231 cases (excluding epileptic encephalopathies). On average, cases of PNES + ES died at a younger age (23 ± 11 years) than the ES-only cohort (30 ± 14 years), and died an average of 3 years after PNES diagnosis. We found no statistically significant confounding cardiac, respiratory, or psychiatric comorbidities and equal rates of anti-seizure medication adherence, although there was a trend for higher rates of psychiatric disorders in the PNES group.