Her Seizures Looked Like Epilepsy, But Her Brain Looked Fine

When Sarah Jay had her first seizure, she was in her mid-20s and working a high-stress job at a call center in Springfield, Mo.

"I was going to go on break," she says. "I was heading towards the bathroom and then I fell and passed out."

An epileptic seizure looks a bit like an electrical storm in the brain. Neurons begin to fire uncontrollably, which can cause patients to lose consciousness or have muscle spasms.

But during Jay's seizures, her brain activity appeared completely normal.

"It was kind of surreal," she says. "This woman, she sat me down and she was like, 'OK, you do not have epilepsy.' And I'm like, 'OK, so what's going on?' "

The woman told Jay her seizures were the result of a psychological disorder called psychogenic non-epileptic seizures.

PNES is a surprisingly common disorder, says John Stern, who directs the epilepsy clinical program at the University of California, Los Angeles. About 1 in 3 people who come to UCLA for uncontrolled seizures don't have epilepsy. Usually, they have PNES, he says.

That's not something most patients want to hear, Stern says, especially if they've already been diagnosed with epilepsy somewhere else. 

PNES patients are not faking their seizures. The events look and feel a lot like epileptic seizures and can be just as debilitating. For example, like people with uncontrolled epilepsy, people with PNES can't get a driver's license. 

The answer is complicated. PNES is more common among young women and people with depression or some other mental illness. And often, Warshaw says, the seizures are a reaction to some sort of traumatic experience like abuse.- More, NPR

Her Seizures Looked Like Epilepsy, But Her Brain Looked Fine

Researchers Discover 'Anxiety Cells' In The Brain