Curriculum · Neurology
Psychogenic non-epileptic events
What it is
Psychogenic non-epileptic events look like seizures but are not seizures. The same idea appears on the syncope side as psychogenic pseudosyncope, a functional disorder that is not true syncope.
Causes and risk
The risk factors named for the psychogenic form are anxiety, panic attacks, conversion disorder, and PTSD.
The semiological features that mark the event
- Long duration.
- Fluctuating course - it rises and falls during the event.
- Asynchronous movements.
- Pelvis thrusting.
- Side-side head or body movements.
- Ictal eye closure, and resist eye opening.
- Ictal eye crying.
Read against an epileptic seizure, three of those do the work: asynchronous movements, ictal eye closure with resist eye opening, and long duration.