Psychogenic Seizures in Children: Long-Term Analysis of 43 Cases

Forty-three patients exhibiting psychogenic seizures with onset before the age of 16 years were studied. All patients underwent intensive electroencephalography and video-electroencephalography monitoring. Thirty-two were female and 11 male. Mean age of the population at seizure onset was 12.4 years...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of child neurology 1994-10, Vol.9 (4), p.404-407
Main Authors: Lancman, Marcelo E., Asconapé, Jorge J., Graves, Susan, Gibson, Patricia A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Cerebral Cortex - physiopathology
Child
Child, Preschool
Conversion Disorder - diagnosis
Conversion Disorder - physiopathology
Conversion Disorder - psychology
Diagnosis, Differential
Diagnostic Imaging
Dominance, Cerebral - physiology
Electroencephalography
Female
Follow-Up Studies
Humans
Male
Neuropsychological Tests
Personality Assessment
Psychophysiologic Disorders - diagnosis
Psychophysiologic Disorders - physiopathology
Psychophysiologic Disorders - psychology
Seizures - diagnosis
Seizures - physiopathology
Seizures - psychology
Stress, Psychological - complications
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Forty-three patients exhibiting psychogenic seizures with onset before the age of 16 years were studied. All patients underwent intensive electroencephalography and video-electroencephalography monitoring. Thirty-two were female and 11 male. Mean age of the population at seizure onset was 12.4 years (range, 5 to 16 years). Twenty-one patients (48.8%) were taking anticonvulsants. Neurologic past history was abnormal in nine cases. Family history of epilepsy was found in 15 cases (34.9%). Median seizure frequency was one seizure every 5 days. Clinical characteristics of the seizures varied. However, unresponsiveness with generalized violent and uncoordinated movements involving the whole body (n = 19) or with generalized trembling (n = 11) were the most common features. Neuropsychological testing, carried out in 22 cases, failed to show major abnormalities in most of the cases. Significant personal and family distress was found in most of the cases. An important impact on patient's quality of life was evident when the seizures were present as compared to the seizure-free periods. There were no statistically significant predictors of clinical outcome. (J Child Neurol 1994;9:404-407).
ISSN:0883-0738
1708-8283
DOI:10.1177/088307389400900413