"Jerking Mom " Epilepsy vs Psychogenic Non-Epileptic Seizure in Pregnancy
Epilepsy is a recurrent seizure disorder caused by abnormal electrical discharges from brain cells, often in the cerebral cortex. It is not a distinct disease, it is a group of disorders for which recurrent seizures are the main symptom. Different forms of epilepsy are either secondary to a particular brain abnormally or neurological disorder, or are said to be "idiopathic" without any clear cause. On the other hand, Psychogenic nonepileptic (PNES) or pseudoseizures are paroxysmal episodes that resemble and often misdiagnosed as seizure disorder, however, PNES are psychological in origin. Physical and neurological findings are usually normal. Psychological features suggestive of psychogenic episodes include anxiety, depression, inappropriate affect, multiple and vague somatic complaints suggestive of somatization disorder, and abnormal interaction with family members. In this particular case, psychogenic non-epileptic seizures was considered, since this patient ahd previous history of anxiety and depression during her first pregnancy which was terminated due to Abruptio Placenta. On her hospital stay, several seizures attacks were noted however, inconsistencies were noticed. Most of the attacks were precipitated by the presence of an audience, she is unresponsive to a few anti-epileptic drugs, it is usually caused by specific emotional triggers such as stress or when she is upset, and lastly some attacks were associated with chronic back pain she experienced during her present pregnancy. These factors were all related clinically in the diagnosis of Pychogenic Non-epileptic seizure.