Journal
EPILEPSY & BEHAVIOR
Volume 24, Issue 1, Pages 107-115Publisher
ACADEMIC PRESS INC ELSEVIER SCIENCE
DOI: 10.1016/j.yebeh.2012.03.018
Keywords
Psychogenic nonepileptic seizures; Emotion; Emotion regulation; Posttraumatic stress; Somatization
Categories
Funding
- Institute for Mental Health Research
- Arizona State University New College
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We examined emotional responses to standard affective pictures in 18 psychogenic nonepileptic seizure (PNES) patients. Given reports of trauma and posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTS) in many PNES patients, comparison groups were seizure-free individuals high and low in PTS (PTS-high, PTS-low; n=18 per group). Patients with psychogenic nonepileptic seizures (1) reported more emotional intensity to neutral and pleasant pictures than PTS-low and more intensity to neutral pictures than PTS-high, and (2) showed less positive emotional behavior to pleasant pictures than PTS-high. Groups did not differ in pleasantness/unpleasantness ratings, negative emotional behavior, cardiac interbeat interval, or respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) reactivity to the pictures. Patients with psychogenic nonepileptic seizures reported more general emotion regulation difficulties and showed lower baseline RSA than PTS-low but not PTS-high. In sum, intense emotional experience and diminished positive emotional behavior characterized PNES patients' emotional responses. (C) 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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