How to Diagnose Nonepileptic Seizures (PNES)

This video discusses the diagnosis of Psychogenic Nonepileptic Seizures (PNES).

Part 1: What is Psychogenic Nonepileptic Seizures (PNES).

Part 2: How to Diagnose Nonepileptic Seizures (PNES)

Part 3: Causes of Nonepileptic Seizures (PNES). Hint, NOT Stress!

Part 4: Treatment of Psychogenic Nonepileptic Seizures (PNES).

The whole series:

👇 Dr. Omar Danoun's Blog and website:
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Thank You!
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#DrOmarDanoun #Epilepsy #PNES

[DrOmarDanoun]

If you would like to make a consult with Dr Omar Danoun, age 16 years and older, please call or email the International Patient Services at Henry Ford Hospital and get your appointment if you are outside the USA: Office Hours: Eastern time 8:00 am –5:30 pm Mon-Friday, excluding holidays

Phone: [phone]

In USA call the clinic

[TattedArab]

I was diagnosed with PNES in 2014 follow the death of my mom, due to a lot of stress & anxiety I experience these seizure like activities. So many doctors in the ER’s have told my family & loved ones I was faking & needed to be hospitalised in pysch instead or would yell at me & rough me up telling me to stop wasting the time of doctors and nurses while treating me very horribly until I met my neurologist who explained to me why my body was experiencing PNES. Thank you for this video I truly wish more doctors and medical care “professionals” knew about this or took the time to learn about it.

[lorriehumphrey]

“They are not faking “…. “they cannot respond” …. “Non-epileptic seizures are real conditions and need to be treated appropriately”. I have been suffering since brain injury in 2018. I found your words validating and comforting, thank you.

[suncorlin]

I cannot tell you how much I appreciate these series of videos. A little over a month ago, I started having "panic attacks" that involved a sort of disassociated fugue state, deep, painful vibrating throughout my entire body, and then my tongue, lips, and legs go numb, and my arms tighten, my fingers lock up so tight it feels like they're going to snap, my hands are immobile, and it's hard to think or speak. Sitting makes it worse, standing seems to quell some of the "vibrating" feeling. I've been very scared, and my family is worried--I've been taken to the ER three times already, and I had a few more episodes that passed without medical assistance. My doctor says it's not a panic attack, my psychiatrist says it's not a panic attack, but the ER doctors said it was. I have a referral for a neurologist at the Michigan Neuroscience Clinic, and I'm really hoping to get some help. I can't drive, it seems to happen in the car frequently. It's become debilitating and these videos make me feel less....alone? More understood? Thank you very much Doctor.

[Erin____]

I was misdiagnosed with PNES because my primary presentation is focal aware seizures w/ secondary generalized. Started to notice deja vu’s along side an unexplainable feeling; like a spiritual awakening or being on the cusp of realizing something very profound! I would tell people that I “don’t feel right and am scared”. Then I’d get quiet. I was still aware of my surroundings.They said it was anxiety/dissociation. Went to a psychiatrist who ordered therapy and antidepressants.


My partner called an ambulance after my first tonic clonic. They almost didn’t bring me in, assumed I was on drugs because I was agitated. They FINALLY figured out I have epilepsy when I had a tonic clonic seizure that same day, in the ER, witnessed by medical staff. & got an abnormal EEG. I’m now on a high dose of lamotrigine, and my seizures are controlled for the most part.

[zandratheanointedone]

I had to fight for my own life because even being taken my ambulance to the ER, I was only put back into the waiting room after they put something in my IV and I could hear them say they weren’t equipped to help me. I was having them back to back, eyes rolling, couldn’t move and finally started crying in fear for them to help me. After 2 neurologist, the 2nd one did an EEG but I wasn’t having an episode. He just told my husband that I needed to distress. My new primary was able to get a diagnosis in his write up. It’s crazy how I’ve had to advocate for myself and still fighting. They used their fists in my chest and it hurt so bad!!!

[seanathanbeanathan]

Currently working through testing to find out if my attacks are epileptic. My neurologist and I agree that it's unlikely- my attacks don't fit the profile of epilepsy. I have fibromyalgia, anxiety+ depression, and a dissociative trauma disorder. I appreciate this video a lot

[wyattward]

I was diagnosed with epilepsy in may of 2023 after my 3rd seizure. @DrOmarDanoun your videos have been an amazing help to understanding what is happening. I can not thank you enough for the valuable insight you have given me. Thank you

[nursekritty]

Thank you for this video! I'm a nurse and I found this very helpful as I see a lot of both epileptic and PNES and it is not always black-and-white what is going on. Great information for healthcare professionals!

[msjfab]

Thanks to you Dr Omar and your Staff at the EMU at Henry Ford Main Hospital. On November 7 I was admitted for a Long Term EEG. Thank you to the Nurses and Medical Assistant and Monitoring Staff for during a Great Job and being so Kind to me. Dr Omar Thank you for finally given me my final diagnosis. 🙏🏾 Please forward this to them I only remember a few names Pam and Shaylynn and the ladies behind the camera 🤷🏽‍♀️😁

[shaniada]

I have frontal lobe epilepsy, and I have a forced fearful cry, without tears, at the beginning of my seizures, that lasts literally seconds, like less than 5 seconds. Then I convulse and what to me feels like my body slowly becomes tonic. I have an official diagnosis by a great epilepsy group in New Jersey, yet I still struggle with doctors at emergency departments, who try to give their own diagnosis of PNES. Because they don't show up on EEG, so they'll say, "Well, the EEG didn't say anything, and given your history of PTSD, it's most likely PNES." It's very frustrating, and scary. Before I was put on the correct med for my seizure type, I would have them in clusters and they'd be refractory to emergency meds, but now that I'm on the correct med, I only get auras before my menstrual cycle and I was prescribed a rescue med, just in case. I really wish doctors who don't specialize in this, would stop trying to make their own diagnosis, when I already have a diagnosis by a specialist, some doctors rely too much on the machines and not their own judgement I think.

[junipersnow]

I've had PNES... But
1. Ive had them in sleep
2. I bite my tongue every time (but I am missing teeth on one side)
3. I have hurt myself passing out and my face hit a wood stove
4. never happened at doctors office
5. What is ASM's?
I understand it is not easy to figure out and most doctors don't know the difference. Thanks for your informative videos.

[Nick-txfx]

I can not come out of my PNES seizures for up to 2 to 3 days sometime to the point that I have had to be Life Flighted 2 times to a a university hospital specializing in brain and spine.
I was an extremely abused child to the point of a broken neck, a caved in skull, and I survived multiple attempts of infanticide.
I can always tell that I am going to have a seizure before it happens because I see what I can only describe as a psychedelic light show starting up to a few hours before the seizures onset.
I have these lights appear in my vision intermittently almost daily for short durations on and off.
The most regular one is sets of blue waves of light rising one after another in the far left of my left eye only.
I have had total loss of vision except peripherally, with vertigo a few times too preceding a seizure.
It is just lights out, and then I wake up.
No pain, no after effects. Just lights off, then lights back on, with a bunch of unknown doctors and nurses looking down at me?
I have had to have trachial intubation, and be put into a chemical coma on occasions too.

[wmzen]

My husband has hemiplegic migraines but he also has random spasmodic movements with vocalizations. His arms and torso jerks and he has a vocalization. It's not consistent with Tourette's but that's the most similar reference we have. It doesn't occur with any consistency but I do think it's a comorbid condition linked to the hemiplegic migraines and ptsd. I'm at a loss trying to find anything that comes close to what's happening. The non psychogenic myoclonus ptsd seems to be a close description but... truly. I had to research for years to find out there was such a thing as hemiplegic migraines, which he's had since I've known him and have progressed over time since I met him in 1994. It's difficult to catch them because they're so random but I'll work on that. These movements don't last for more than a second.

[staciebaby]

Wow I've had fibro for 15 yrs and started experiencing siezures about 8 years ago. Mine are repetitive movement, blacking out, spacing out annd some twitching. Oh and falling! I will walk or pace in circles for hours when in one and will fall repeatedly. They can last days! I go in and out of consciousness and only remember little bits. We were able to realize they were brought on by stress because they mostly occurred during a fibro flare when I was in horrible pain or during or a few days after a disagreement with someone. So iys interesting to see in ur chart that it's known for fibro and pnes to happen together. I Didn't know that! But it makes sense! When ur in that much pain and that amount of stress your brain just shuts off to try and relieve you of that stress. The brain is a crazy thing! Just wish more doctors were understanding and believed in it

[freeskier]

I will be going for video eeg in a few weeks... Mine can last up to 8 hours. Lack of sleep is always a trigger. Whenever I was taken to the ER the doctors were clueless and just sent me home. This video is very reassuring...if you're taking new patients let me know.😊

[spiritman-emqr]

I was diagnosed with PNES in 2020, and in 2023 I was ALSO diagnosed with right temporal lobe epilepsy. My neurologist said that I have a combination, which is not uncommon.

[GSLM-Official]

I love coming to this channel to learn

[amberj-ly]

I have both. Which can happened due to traumatic brain injury. Partial complex focal seizure with secondary generalization. But I am conscious in some seizures and then some I am not. Yes, my body hurts so much. When I wake up; I am confused and feel like I am drugged. I pee on myself sometimes cause my legs are weak.

[FallenMuse]

When I was in the EMU unit they took me off of all of my meds and I did not sleep for 4 days no joke they couldn't figure out why but I did have a couple of seizures and I got diagnosed with PNES and PTSD and conversion disorder and even though I take heart medicine before I go to sleep in case of a panic attack it doesn't stop the night terrors. But it does keep my heart in check.