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| |  Identifying Cause of Nonepileptic Seizures in Children May Lead to Seizure Resolution: Presented at AACAP By Maria Bishop BOSTON, MA -- October 26, 2007 -- Identification of the psychopathology behind nonepileptic seizures in youths may be an important factor in assuring their resolution, according to research reported here at the 54th Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP). The results of a retrospective chart review and patient/family interviews were presented by lead author Sigita Plioplys, MD, Attending Physician, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Children's Memorial Hospital, Chicago, Illinois, United States. Psychogenic nonepileptic seizures are paroxysmal behaviours that result from some psychological cause, such as panic attacks. Identification of a cause for the seizures and implementation of psychiatric treatment and special education was found to be associated with an eventual absence of nonepileptic seizures in young people, Dr. Plioplys and colleagues found. The researchers identified 44 patients with nonepileptic seizures among 1,363 children ages 6 to 18 years who were assessed for seizures at the Epilepsy Monitoring Unit (EMU) at Children's Memorial Hospital between 2001 and 2005. Patients were identified via a computerized video encephalogram database search, and confirmed by an epileptologist after 24-hour recordings were reviewed. A total of 26 out of the 44 patients' families participated in a telephone follow-up interview. A retrospective chart review examined numerous personal variables, including demographic, developmental, and educational variables, as well as medical-related ones, such as nonepileptic seizures clinical descriptions, v-EEG findings, pre-existing psychopathology, precipitating stressors, family psychiatric illness. These variables were examined at baseline and again in the telephone follow-up. After the causes of the seizures were identified in this clinical sample, 69% of the youths experienced long-term resolution of their nonepileptic seizures, which was associated with decreased psychiatric and medical morbidity, according to the researchers. Patients with nonepileptic seizures often spend years without a diagnosis, while reporting high rates of psychiatric and medical comorbidities, the researchers noted. These patients utilise a great deal of medical services, emergency-room visits, and unnecessary treatment with antiepileptics that have potentially serious iatrogenic complications, the said.
[Presentation title: Longitudinal Outcome of Psychogenic Non-Epileptic Seizures in Youth. Abstract A52]
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