[Psychiatric disease in patients with psychogenic non-epileptic seizures referred from an epilepsy unit in a general hospital]. / Patología psiquiátrica en pacientes con crisis no epilépticas psicógenas derivados a una unidad de epilepsia en un hospital general.

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION: We evaluate psychiatric disease associated with psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (PNES) and study the role played by previous traumatic experiences, dissociative episodes and personality disorders. METHOD: After diagnosing PNES in our epilepsy unit, we obtained a sample of 46 patients and carried out a structured psychiatric interview (SCID) following DSM-III-R criteria. We looked for previous dissociative episodes and prepared a questionnaire for traumatic experiences and basic clinical data. RESULTS: The most frequent psychiatric disorders were depression, anxiety and somatoform disorders. Personality disorders were found in 16 patients (34.78%), dissociative episodes in 17 (36.95%), and previous traumatic experiences in 14 (30.43%). No statistically significant differences were found in regards to PNES, with respect to presence or absence of previous traumatic experiences, dissociative episodes, and personality disorders. CONCLUSIONS: As in previous studies, our research project confirms the co-existence of PNES with other mental disorders, and although we do find a higher frequency of seizures, the role played by traumatic experiences and dissociative disorders in CNEP remains unclear.