Multi-Perspective Investigation of Paroxysmal Nonepileptic Events Retrospectively

Year 2020, Volume: 3 Issue: 2, 22 - 26, 01.04.2020

Hatice Mutlu Albayrak , Haydar Ali Taşdemir

Abstract

Background:
Non-epileptic paroxysmal events (NEPE) refer to physiological or exaggerated
physiological responses caused by parasomnias, movement disorders, behavioral
or psychiatric disorders and hemodynamic, respiratory and gastrointestinal dysfunctions.
In the present study detailed data were provided on the demographic features of
NEPE based on five-years of clinical experience and observation.

Materials
and Method: The medical records of 200 patients diagnosed with NEPE were
investigated retrospectively. The distribution of NEPE was evaluated based on
age and sex.

Results:
Our study demonstrated that 23,5% of patients with NEPE had already been
followed with a diagnosis of epilepsy. 34 (45.4%) patients aged 2 months to 4^(11/12)
years were diagnosed with breath holding spells. PS was the most common
diagnosis (32.5%)  in general. The
mean age in PS was 11.25 ± 3.42 years. 38 (58.5%) of them were female, and 27
(41.5%) were male. Some 28 (43.1%) PS were diagnosed from the amateur camera
images taken by families; 20 (30.1%) were diagnosed from video-EEG monitoring;
while the physician witnessed a seizure first-hand in 17 (26.2%) of the
patients.

Conclusion:
The form and frequency of NEPE in children vary with age. PS was the most
common diagnosis in accordance with the literature. In contradistinction to previos
studies breath holding spell was found to be the most common NEPE in early
childhood period for this study population. 

Keywords

Non-epileptic paroxysmal events, psycogenic seizure

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