Abstracts

Rationale: Psychogenic nonepileptic seizures (PNES) are common and represent at least 30% of patients seen at referral epilepsy centers. While the diagnosis of PNES is the focus of much research, treatment lags behind, and in particular psychiatric and psychological care is difficult to obtain. This is an attempt at measuring the interest of psychiatrists and psychologists in PNES and other psychogenic symptoms.Methods: For both the American Psychiatric Association and the American Psychological Association, data were gathered regarding: 1) Patient education material (from their web sites); 2) Articles published in their official journal (from Medline); and 3) Abstracts presented at their annual meeting (from the annual meeting s web sites). Topics were searched using the following terms: psychogenic, somatoform, somatic, somatization, conversion, factitious, and malingering. The table summarizes the sources for both organizations. Results: 1. For the American Psychiatric Association a. Patient education: ZERO of 28 topics b. Journal articles: ZERO for the year 2012 c. Meeting presentations: 1 with somatic and 1 with somatization (out of of 589 presentations) 2. For the American Psychological Association a. Patient education: ZERO of 56 topics b. Journal articles: ZERO for the year 2013 c. Meeting presentations: ZERO of 1301Conclusions: Our mental health organizations show little or no interest in this entire category of psychiatric disease, which may explain why patients with PNES feel abandoned or caught between neurology and psychiatry. This may contribute to poor outcome.