Attachment style, relationship quality, and psychological distress in patients with psychogenic non-epileptic seizures versus epilepsy

The influence of attachment style and relationship quality on quality of life and psychological distress in carers of people with epileptic and nonepileptic seizures

“…To examine differences between CfE and CfPNES on demographic, carer status, psychopathology, quality of life and relationship and attachment variables we performed independent samples t-tests, 2 F P esults are given elsewhere. 20 The distribution of most variables deviates significantly from normality, so to assess association of patient and carer characteristics with carer psychopathology and HRQoL we calculated Spearman correlation coefficients (t-tests for binary variables) for CfE and CfPNES ( Table 2). As the recommended procedure for testing for equality of Spearman correlation coefficients, we tested for…”

“…Ethical review and approval, patient identification, selection, inclusion, exclusion and consent was all performed as reported previously. 20 We asked patient participants to identify their main informal carer and sought consent for patient and carer participation separately.…”

“…However, relationship problems have been found to affect the wellbeing and psychological symptom burden of people with seizure disorders. 4,20,21 Qualitative research involving carers of people living with epilepsy, meanwhile, has consistently highlighted Q L (especially families). 1,3 One aspect of relationship quality that has received attention in the literature on carer wellbeing is…”

Cognitive-behavioural therapy does meaningfully reduce depression in people with epilepsy

“…Although they rate the quality of most studies forming the basis of the meta-analysis as ‘good’, their own discussion of the findings highlights many shortcomings of the current evidence base. However, before new treatment approaches are tried, it would be prudent to develop a deeper understanding of the nature and causes of depressive symptoms in those with epilepsy,4 and to develop more rigorous selection criteria for future intervention studies.…”

Peri‐ictal responsiveness to the social environment is greater in psychogenic nonepileptic than epileptic seizures

“…In addition, a small number of studies have compared families of patients with epilepsy and PNES, but these studies have not specifically examined the role or effects of the seizures themselves in patients’ social environment . At least a subgroup of patients with PNES is characterized by insecure attachment and particular anxieties about interpersonal relationships . There is also evidence that carers differ in affective expression and that they experience their relationships with patients with seizure disorders differently, depending on whether the seizures are epileptic or nonepileptic …”