Psychiatric Problem of People with Epilepsy and Psychogenic Non-Epileptic Seizures (PNES)

Psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (PNES) are epilepsy like episodes which have an emotional rather than organic origin and thought to reflect emotional disturbance. Research on etiology of PNES suggests the role of multiple psychiatric and neurological factors. However, the psychopathology of PNES is poorly understood. Some studies have suggested a number of psychological disorders which has overlapping symptoms with PNES. Conversion disorder, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and depression to name a few, are the common co-morbid condition with PNES. Present study aimed at examining and comparing various psychiatric problems among PNES, epileptic and healthy control. For this purpose 60 participants, PNES (n=20), epilepsy (n=20), and healthy control (n=20) were recruited from department of neurology of Sir Sunder Lal hospital. Participants were administered with Symptoms Checklist-90-R (SCL-90-R) and responses were obtained on three administrations, each with PNES, epileptic and healthy control separately. Results revealed statistically higher level of psychiatric problem among PNES individuals in comparison to epilepsy and healthy control. It was concluded that psychiatric problem are more prevalent among PNES patients and health professionals should consider the psychiatric dimension during diagnosis and treatment of PNES.