Non-Epileptic Psychogenic Seizures: a Neurologist’s Perspective

Psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (PNES) represent a relatively frequent challenge for clinicians. While they resemble epileptic seizures, they are not the consequence of paroxysmal electrical discharges in the brain, but are related to psychological triggers in vulnerable subjects. Gold standard of PNES diagnosis remains the recording of a typical event under video-EEG. PNES recognition is not only important in order to offer an appropriate treatment to the patient, which should include a multidisciplinary approach by psychiatrists and neurologists, but also, especially in the acute phase, to avoid a potentially harmful escalation of pharmacological treatment.