Reliability of additional reported seizure manifestations to identify dissociative seizures

Purpose: Descriptions of seizure manifestations (SM), or semiology, can help localize the symptomatogenic zone and subsequently included brain regions involved in epileptic seizures, as well as identify patients with dissociative seizures (DS). Patients and witnesses are not trained observers, so these descriptions may vary from expert review of seizure video recordings of seizures. To better understand how reported factors can help identify patients with DS or epileptic seizures (ES), we evaluated the associations between more than 30 SMs and diagnosis using standardized interviews. Methods: Based on patient- and observer-reported data from 490 patients with diagnoses documented by video-electoencephalography, we compared the rate of each SM in five mutually exclusive groups: epileptic seizures (ES), DS, physiologic seizure-like events (PSLE), mixed DS and ES, and inconclusive testing. Results: In addition to SMs that we described in a prior manuscript, the following were associated with DS: light triggers, emotional stress trigger, pre-ictal and post-ictal headache, postictal muscle soreness, and ictal sensory symptoms. The following were associated with ES: triggered by missing medication, aura of deje vu, and leftward eye deviation. There were numerous manifestations separately associated with mixed ES and DS. Conclusions: Reported SM can help identify patients with DS, but no manifestation is pathognomonic for either ES or DS. Patients with mixed ES and DS reported factors divergent from both ES-alone and DS-alone. (C) 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

Descriptions of seizure manifestations can aid in identifying patients with dissociative seizures, but no single manifestation is specific for either epileptic seizures or dissociative seizures. Patients with mixed epileptic seizures and dissociative seizures report factors divergent from those with isolated epileptic seizures or dissociative seizures.