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DOI: 10.1542/peds.110.4.e46
2002;110;e46Pediatrics
Prakash Kotagal, Maristela Costa, Elaine Wyllie and Barbara Wolgamuth
Paroxysmal Nonepileptic Events in Children and Adolescents
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Paroxysmal Nonepileptic Events in Children and Adolescents
Prakash Kotagal, MD; Maristela Costa, MD; Elaine Wyllie, MD; and Barbara Wolgamuth R.EEG T.
ABSTRACT. Objective. Paroxysmal nonepileptic events
(PNEs) are frequently encountered in children and adoles-
cents; however, there is little information concerning the
relative frequency of various types of these disorders. We
report our experience with PNEs in a group of children and
adolescents who underwent prolonged video-electroen-
cephalographic monitoring.
Methods. During a 6-year period, 883 patients were
monitored in the Pediatric Epilepsy Monitoring Unit and
134 patients (15.2%) were documented to have PNEs on
the basis of a typical spell recorded during monitoring.
Their hospital charts were reviewed and videotapes of
these events were analyzed.
Results. Patients were divided into 3 age groups: 1)
the Infant, Toddler, and Preschool Group (2 months–5
years) that comprised 26 patients. The most common
diagnoses were stereotyped movements, hypnic jerks,
parasomnias, and Sandifer syndrome. Concomitant epi-
lepsy was present in 12 patients (46%). 2) The School-Age
Group (5–12 years) consisted of 61 patients. The most
frequent diagnoses were conversion disorder (psycho-
genic seizures), inattention or daydreaming, stereotyped
movements, hypnic jerks, and paroxysmal movement
disorders. Fifteen patients (25%) had concomitant epi-
lepsy. 3) The Adolescent Group (12–18 years) consisted of
48 patients, of whom 40 patients (83%) were diagnosed
with conversion disorder. Nine patients (19%) had con-
comitant epilepsy.
Conclusions. In our patients with PNEs, conversion
disorder was seen in children >5 years old and its fre-
quency increased with age, becoming the most common
type of PNEs among adolescents. In adolescents, conver-
sion disorder was more common in females, whereas
males predominated in the school-aged group. Concom-
itant epilepsy with nonepileptic events occurred in all 3
age groups to a varying extent. Pediatrics 2002;110(4).
URL: http://www.pediatrics.org/cgi/content/full/110/4/
e46; nonepileptic, paroxysmal, psychogenic seizures, chil-
dren, adolescents.
ABBREVIATIONS. PNEs, paroxysmal nonepileptic events; EEG,
electroencephalographic; PEMU, Pediatric Epilepsy Monitoring
Unit; AEDs, antiepileptic drugs.
P
aroxysmal nonepileptic events (PNEs) occur in
all age groups. Approximately 20% of patients
seen at epilepsy referral centers are found to
have nonepileptic events (also called nonepileptic
seizures).
1
In children, besides psychogenic seizures,
physiologic and organic disorders also mimic sei-
zures
2–6
; on the other hand, psychogenic seizures
and cardiac events comprise the largest categories
among adults.
7–14
Although the presentation of spe-
cific disorders has been described in detail, the liter-
ature contains only scant data concerning the relative
frequency of various types of PNEs in children and
adolescents. Recently, Bye et al
15
reported that PNEs
accounted for 43% of children who underwent vid-
eo-electroencephalographic (EEG) monitoring. In
our study, we have examined the relative frequency
of different PNE disorders encountered during a
6-year period in our Pediatric Epilepsy Monitoring
Unit (PEMU).
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Between January 1989 and December 1995, 883 patients ⬍18
years old underwent video-EEG monitoring in the PEMU at the
Cleveland Clinic Foundation. Among these patients, 199 (22.5%)
were discharged with a final diagnosis of PNEs. PNEs were de-
fined as paroxysmal changes in behavior, not associated with a
seizure pattern on scalp EEG recordings. Patients were monitored
from 1 to 5 days, depending on the number of events. If no
spontaneous events occurred during this period, an attempt was
sometimes made to induce an episode by suggestion. In 134 pa-
tients, we succeeded in capturing their typical spells; in the re-
maining 65 patients, PNEs were diagnosed on the basis of clinical
history and prolonged EEG recordings over several days that did
not show any epileptiform discharges. Events with symptomatol-
ogy consistent with epileptic seizures that did not show EEG
changes (such as auras or mesial frontal lobe seizures) were ex-
cluded. We reviewed the hospital charts and videotapes of 134
patients in whom at least 1 typical event was captured during
continuous video-EEG monitoring. This included 1 patient with
factitious disorder (Munchausen Syndrome by proxy) in whom no
events were captured and the diagnosis was reached after a de-
tailed clinical and social work evaluation. Patients with docu-
mented PNEs accounted for 15.2% of all patients monitored in our
PEMU. All recorded events were confirmed with a parent or
guardian to be the child’s typical spells. The patient was inter-
viewed during and after their episodes by technologists, nurses or
physicians in the PEMU using verbal, visual, or tactile stimuli to
get their attention. A patient was judged to be unresponsive when
all such measures failed to get any response. Older children were
also asked to recall test words and items presented to them during
recorded events. In patients strongly suspected of having psycho-
genic seizures, when no episodes were observed over 4 or more
days of recording, we attempted to induce such an episode after
obtaining parental consent. These methods included sleep depri-
vation, verbal suggestion, hyperventilation, photic stimulation,
and/or the injection of saline intravenously. A concomitant diag-
nosis of epilepsy was made if an epileptic seizure was also cap-
tured during the video-EEG monitoring or the description of other
events was judged to be highly suspicious for an epileptic seizure
given the presence of interictal epileptiform discharges on EEG.
All EEG and video segments of these episodes were analyzed by
one of the authors (M.C.) and also reviewed with one of the senior
authors (P.K. and E.W.).
Based on the pathophysiology of the recorded events, we di-
vided the PNEs into 2 groups: psychiatric disorders and those that
From the Section of Pediatric Epilepsy, Department of Neurology, Cleve-
land Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, Ohio.
Received for publication Feb 15, 2002; accepted Jun 7, 2002.
Address correspondence to Prakash Kotagal, MD, Section of Pediatric Ep-
ilepsy, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, 9500 Euclid Ave, Cleveland, OH 44195.
E-mail: kotagap@ccf.org
PEDIATRICS (ISSN 0031 4005). Copyright © 2002 by the American Acad-
emy of Pediatrics.
http://www.pediatrics.org/cgi/content/full/110/4/e46 PEDIATRICS Vol. 110 No. 4 October 2002 1of5
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were either physiologic or organic. Psychiatric disorders were
diagnosed after a thorough evaluation by a child psychiatrist at
our institution, using the criteria listed in the Diagnostic and Sta-
tistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition.
16,17
Psychogenic
seizures are subdivided into: a) somatoform or conversion disor-
ders; b) dissociative disorders; c) anxiety disorders; d) disorders
with psychotic symptoms; e) factitious disorder and malingering;
and f) reinforced behavior patterns.
RESULTS
The 134 children and adolescents with PNEs were
grouped by age: the Infant, Toddler, and Preschool
Group (2 months old–5 years; mean: 3.17 years) 26
patients (17 males and 9 females); the School-Age
Group (age 5–12 years; mean: 6.16 years) 61 patients
(35 males, 26 females); and the Adolescent Group
(age 12–18 years; mean: 15.5 years) 48 patients (17
males, 31 females).
Physiologic or organic disorders were seen in 66
patients (Table 1). The more frequent diagnoses in-
cluded inattention/daydreaming, stereotyped move-
ments, hypnic jerks, and parasomnias. All of the
patients’ episodes of inattention or daydreaming
were interruptible by tactile or verbal stimulation
with the exception of a 2-year-old boy, whose staring
episodes could not be aborted. In this child, the
staring episodes lasted 5 to 30 seconds, occurred up
to 20 times a day, and showed no EEG seizure pat-
tern. This child was otherwise completely normal.
Psychiatric disorders were seen in 69 patients, in-
cluding 1 patient in the Infant, Toddler, and Pre-
school Group (a 2-year-old boy with factitious disor-
der), 26 patients were in the school age group and 42
patients in the adolescent group. In the School-Age
Group, 4 boys were felt to have episodic dyscontrol
syndrome/intermittent explosive disorder, and 22
patients had conversion disorder (8 females: 14
males). In the Adolescent Group, 2 patients, both
girls, were diagnosed with panic attacks and 40 with
conversion disorder (26 females: 14 males). Our
youngest patient with conversion disorder was a
5-year-old boy. The distribution of the psychiatric
versus physiologic or organic disorders according to
age is shown in Fig 1. Conversion disorder was more
frequent among males in the School-Age Group (14
males: 8 females; P ⫽ .20), which was opposite of that
found in the Adolescent Group (26 females: 14 males;
P ⫽ .06). Although the proportion of male to females
within each age category was not statistically signif-
icant, a significant difference emerged when the 2
groups were compared with each other, using the
2
test (P ⬍ .03; Fig 2).
Based on clinical manifestations, patients with
conversion disorder group could be divided into 2
groups: a) unresponsive events, during which the
patient became unresponsive with reduction or the
absence of spontaneous movements (lasting as long
as 40 minutes in one instance) or b) motor events, in
which they exhibited motor phenomena, often con-
sisting of bizarre, irregular, jerking or thrashing
movements of the extremities, not typical of any of
the known types of epileptic seizures. In some pa-
tients, the level of responsiveness would change
abruptly during the course of the event. In the
School-Age Group, there were 14 patients with un-
responsiveness as the main manifestation while 8
patients had predominantly motor events. In the Ad-
olescent Group, 26 patients had unresponsive events,
17 had motor events, and 3 patients had both types of
episodes. These differences in symptoms between
the School-Age and Adolescent Groups were not
statistically significant.
A concomitant disorder such as epilepsy, develop-
mental delay, or both was found in 59 patients (Table
2). This occurred in 21 (34%) of 62 patients with
conversion disorder. In 14 (67%) of these 21 patients,
the concomitant diagnosis had been present before
the discovery of conversion disorder (this included
11 patients with epilepsy or 17.7% of those with
conversion disorder). These 11 patients with epilepsy
and conversion disorder accounted for 1.5% of our
patients with epilepsy studied in the PEMU.
In the physiologic or organic disorders group, a
concomitant diagnosis was present in all 14 patients
with inattention or daydreaming. Concomitant epi-
lepsy was present in 2, developmental delay with
abnormal neurologic examination in 3, developmen-
tal delay with epilepsy in 5, and attention deficit
disorder in 4 patients. Ten (91%) of 11 patients with
hypnic jerks had a concomitant diagnosis: epilepsy
in 3, developmental delay with abnormal neurologic
examination in 1, developmental delay with epilepsy
in 5, and attention deficit disorder in 1. Among the 41
patients with organic disorders, 16 (39%) patients
had a concomitant diagnosis: epilepsy in 3, develop-
mental delay in 11, and epilepsy with developmental
delay in 2.
The duration of symptoms before reaching the
correct diagnosis averaged 1.35 years (range: 3
weeks–4 years). At the time of admission into the
PEMU, 88 patients were on antiepileptic drugs
(AEDs). Forty-one patients were discharged from the
hospital on an AEDs; 36 patients were proven to
have concomitant epilepsy on the basis of recorded
seizures, whereas 5 patients had interictal epilepti-
form discharges on their EEG (3 patients with focal
and 2 with generalized sharp waves).
Follow-up information was available for only 35
patients. Among the conversion disorder group, 20
patients were seen at a median time of 8.35 months
TABLE 1. Physiologic and Organic PNE Disorders by Diag-
nosis
Age
2 Months–
5 Years
5–12
Years
12–18
Years
Inattention/daydreaming 1 12 1
Hypnic jerks 4 5 2
Stereotyped movements 5 7 0
Parasomnias 5 3 2
Movement disorders 0 5 0
Gastroesophageal reflux 4 0 0
Nonepileptic myoclonus 2 1 0
Apneas 2 0 0
Shuddering attacks 1 0 0
Alternating hemiplegia 1 0 0
Migraine 0 1 0
Hyperventilation attacks 0 1 0
Syncope 0 0 1
Total 25 35 6
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(range: 3–36 months) and 65% of them were free of
events. Among patients in the physiologic/organic
disorders group, only 15 were followed up at a mean
of 5.1 month (range: 3–12 months); only 20% were
free of their events.
Although only 10 patients with parasomnias un-
derwent EEG-video monitoring in the PEMU, during
the same period, another 60 children and adolescents
with parasomnias were evaluated as outpatients in
the Pediatric Sleep Disorders Clinic, some of whom
were also evaluated in the sleep laboratory. All 10
patients monitored in the PEMU were found to have
nonrapid eye movement parasomnias (night terrors,
[4]; sleepwalking, [4]; and confusional arousals, [2]).
DISCUSSION
PNEs are quite commonly encountered in infants,
young children, and adolescents. In a substantial
proportion of cases, a careful history and examina-
tion will elucidate their nature. However, in other
cases, it is necessary to differentiate PNEs from epi-
leptic seizures by prolonged EEG-video monitoring.
Bye et al
15
recently published their experience with
PNEs in a group of children undergoing video-EEG
monitoring. They encountered PNEs in 285 (43%) of
666 patients, outnumbering children with epileptic
seizures (40%) and those in whom events were not
captured (17%). This somewhat high percentage of
PNEs may reflect a referral bias. In our patient pop-
ulation, PNEs accounted for 23% of infants, children,
and adolescents admitted to the PEMU for video-
EEG monitoring. In 68% of diagnosed cases, we suc-
ceeded in documenting the typical episodes of the
patient. In the remaining patients, a persistently nor-
mal EEG over several days of monitoring while off
antiepileptic medications strengthened the clinical
suspicion that the episodes were likely PNEs. Our
study was limited to patients referred for EEG-video
monitoring and therefore is not a true indication of
the actual incidence of PNEs in the general popula-
tion.
Approximately half the documented PNEs were
physiologic or organic in nature, and the remaining
half comprised psychiatric disorders of which con-
version disorder (psychogenic seizures) was the
most common entity, especially among adolescents.
Fig 1. Paroxysmal nonepileptic disorders by age
group.
Fig 2. Distribution of conversion disorders by
age and sex (P ⬍ .03).
TABLE 2. Concomitant Diagnoses With PNE Disorders
Hypnic Jerks/
Inattention
N ⫽ 25
Organic
Disorders
N ⫽ 41
Conversion
Disorders
N ⫽ 62
Psychiatric or
Other Diagnoses
N ⫽ 7
Epilepsy 5 3 11 0
Developmental delay 4 11 7 0
Developmental delay and epilepsy 10 2 3 0
Total number with concomitant diagnosis 19 (76%) 16 (39%) 21 (34%) 0
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In the School-Age Group, conversion disorder was
less frequent than physiologic/organic disorders, ac-
counting for 36.6% of PNEs in that age group; the
youngest patient with conversion disorder was 5
years old. The only psychiatric entity encountered
below that age range was factitious disorder, which
typically involves an infant or very young child.
Careful documentation of this disorder by EEG-
video monitoring is important to the welfare of the
child so that appropriate psychiatric and social work
intervention can be provided promptly. In the ab-
sence of clear evidence to suggest this diagnosis, one
should evaluate the child and family carefully to
avoid making false accusations that could lead to a
parent losing custody of the child.
18–21
As recom-
mended by Gates,
17
we do not use the term pseudo-
seizure because patients with seizures that are not
epileptic in origin do have a true illness, whereas the
word pseudo is pejorative, carrying the connotation
of false or deceptive. The terms nonepileptic event
and nonepileptic seizure have been used inter-
changeably in the literature and refer to both psychi-
atric and nonpsychiatric conditions.
Except for 2 adolescent females with panic attacks,
conversion disorder accounted for nearly all of the
psychiatric diagnoses among adolescents, two-thirds
of the patients being girls. This female predominance
has been noted in other reports of psychogenic sei-
zures among adolescents
22–24
as well as in adult pa-
tients.
25–27
However, in the School-Age Group, boys
outnumbered girls by a ratio of 7 to 4. The reason for
this age-related difference is unknown. Additional
studies are needed to confirm this hypothesis. In
addition to conversion disorder, episodic dyscontrol
syndrome or intermittent explosive disorder was
also encountered in this age group; all 4 children
were boys. This agrees with previously reported lit-
erature.
16
Leis et al
28
noted that unresponsiveness without
motor manifestations is the most common feature of
psychogenic seizures; they studied 47 patients ages 4
to 51 years, most of whom were adults. Kramer
22,29
found that unresponsive events were more common
in school-age children compared with adolescents
but this difference was not statistically significant.
Kramer also found that psychogenic seizures with
motor activity were significantly more common
among adolescents.
29
We found a similar proportion
of unresponsive versus motor events, 63% and 60%
respectively, in both school-aged and adolescent
groups. Some adolescents exhibited both motor and
unresponsive types of events. The motor phenomena
of psychogenic seizures have been described in detail
in the literature, and we also found them to comprise
irregular movements that could switch from one ex-
tremity to another, side-to-side head movements,
pelvic thrusting, and abrupt cessation. The level of
unresponsiveness could also change abruptly during
or immediately after the motor activity. We found
the ictal and postictal interview of the patient to be
very helpful in documenting “psychogenic unre-
sponsiveness,” a key feature of psychogenic sei-
zures.
1,30
Although concomitant epilepsy has been reported
in 15% to 60% of patients with psychogenic sei-
zures,
11,12,22,31
recent data suggests that this number
is perhaps closer to 10%.
30–32
We found that concom-
itant epilepsy, developmental delay, or both oc-
curred in 18%, 11%, and 5%, respectively, of children
and adolescents with psychogenic seizures. Con-
versely, only 11 (1.5%) of 746 children with epilepsy
had psychogenic seizures, compared with 20% of
adults with chronic epilepsy reported to have psy-
chogenic seizures.
34–36
This may reflect the effects of
chronic epilepsy over a number of years, higher in-
cidence of abuse, maladaptive behaviors, or lack of
access to effective psychotherapy. Documentation of
both psychogenic and epileptic seizures is essential
for optimal management of these patients.
We found that 35% of our patients with PNEs had
been started on AEDs unnecessarily. In the series of
Leis et al,
28
75% of patients had been placed on AED
therapy (6 also received emergent treatment for sta-
tus epilepticus). It appears after being given a diag-
nosis of epilepsy, some individuals become overly
dependent on family support and attention. In some
of these cases, psychogenic seizures become more
apparent once epileptic seizures have been brought
under better control.
Among physiologic and organic disorders, day-
dreaming or inattention episodes comprised the larg-
est category. Such episodes of lapses in attention,
daydreaming, drowsiness, or stereotyped behavior
occurring in a mentally retarded child,
37,38
may raise
the concern among parents, teachers, or physicians
that the child could be having absence seizures. More
than half of our patients with episodes of staring or
inattention (14/25, or 56%) had developmental de-
lay, which could make it harder to make this distinc-
tion on the basis of clinical description alone. Other
entities included stereotypies, which are more com-
mon in neurologically impaired children, movement
disorders such as tics, myoclonus, paroxysmal dys-
tonia or choreoathetosis, shuddering attacks, and
gastroespophageal reflux.
39,40
Parasomnias were un-
derrepresented in our patient sample because they
were usually evaluated in the sleep laboratory or
diagnosed on clinical grounds alone. Because of the
retrospective nature of this study, only limited fol-
low-up was available for most of these children with
PNEs.
We find inpatient video-EEG monitoring to be
much more useful than ambulatory EEG monitoring
because it provides videotape documentation of the
events and allows an interview of the patient during
events—this is particularly important in psychogenic
seizures. The monitoring should be long enough to
capture at least 1 typical event with good quality
video and EEG; at our institution, this ranges from 1
to 7 days. Patients with ⬎1 type of seizure or event
should be carefully evaluated for concomitant epi-
lepsy. Limitations of ambulatory EEG monitoring
include: a limited number of channels available for
recording, contamination of the EEG by artifacts at-
tributable to loose leads, movement and muscle ac-
tivity, and a lack of objective documentation of the
events. However, in seizures that are reliably associ-
ated with seizure patterns detectable on scalp EEG,
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ambulatory recordings can quantify the number of
seizures in a given time period, eg, absences or sec-
ondarily generalized seizures.
CONCLUSION
Video-EEG monitoring is essential to making an
accurate diagnosis of PNEs, reassuring the family
that all care has been taken to exclude epileptic sei-
zures, and helping to keep open the lines of commu-
nication between the patient’s family and physician.
In some patients who have epileptic and psycho-
genic seizures, the treatment plan needs to address
both disorders. The gender predominance of males
among younger children with psychogenic seizures
differs from that seen in adolescent and adult pa-
tients.
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Paroxysmal Nonepileptic Events in Children and Adolescents
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