Letter to the EditorFunctional seizures? “So I still have seizures, right?”
Section snippets
Minor problems with the term “functional”
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We professionals understand it, but it does not really mean anything to patients. How do we explain that it is “functional”, and therefore, you need to see a mental health specialist (psychiatrist and psychologist) and undergo psychotherapy, not physical therapy, not occupational therapy, and not “functional” therapy. To be logical and unambiguous, the psychological component must be in the name. “Psychogenic” and “psychological” are not derogatory or dirty words or “offensive.” They are
Major problems with maintaining the term “seizure”
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Every clinician has heard the patient's reaction “So I still have seizures, right?”
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In the English language, and unless you want to cite dictionaries from the 19th century, the word “seizure” implies an epileptic mechanism. Maybe in the 1900s it referred to any “sudden attack of an illness …”, but languages evolve. In theory, “seizure” could be a general term, but in reality, it is not. Nowadays and in daily conversations, contrary to what has been argued [1,5,6], it is not a general term to
References (7)
- et al.
Terminology for psychogenic nonepileptic seizures: making the case for “functional seizures.”
Epilepsy Behav
(2020) Perspective on a name
Epilepsy Behav
(2020)- et al.
We need a functioning name for PNES. Consider dissociative seizures
Epilepsy Behav
(2020)
Cited by (1)
Neurology specialists’ visual interpretation of psychogenic nonepileptic seizures: Contemplating their etiology and existing challenges
2021, SeizureCitation Excerpt :PNES represent a vast and heterogeneous group of paroxysmal symptoms and events that look similar to epileptic seizures but cannot be explained by abnormal epileptiform activity. The distinction between epileptic seizures and PNES has become one of the points in recent discussions surrounding the use of the phrase “psychogenic nonepileptic seizures” itself [2–6]. Some argue that the terms “functional seizures” or “dissociative seizures” could provide better emphasis on the psychosocial components of PNES and evade the negative connotation of the word “psychogenic”.