Abstracts

Rationale: To provide a comprehensive review of the literature on outcomes measures used to evaluate treatment of Psychogenic Non-Epileptic Seizures (PNES). Understanding the outcome measures used to determine treatment efficacy is important not only for future research, but also to inform clinical practice in the assessment and continued treatment of PNES. Methods: A comprehensive literature review was conducted via PubMed to identify original research articles addressing treatment of PNES. We excluded all review articles and case reports. We reviewed the references of all included papers to identify any articles missed through PubMed search. Results: To date, 22 articles have been reviewed, with 33 different outcome measures identified across studies. Spell frequency was the most commonly used primary outcome in 81% of reports Other primary and secondary outcome measures used fell into general categories of Quality of Life (3 different scales used)(55% of total), daily functioning/disability (7 scales used) (36%), coping (4 scales used) (27%), depression/anxiety (7 scales used) (59%), other psychopathology (8 scales used)(36%), and beliefs about health (2 scales used)(.05%). Some form of health care usage/cost was obtained in 23% of studies. Conclusions: Comprehensive review revealed prior research has utilized a wide range of measures to evaluate treatment outcome of PNES. Spell frequency was the primary outcome measure across almost all studies. Other outcome measures were heterogeneous. We noted a paucity of studies that evaluated health care utilization or costs. Future research on the most useful outcome measures for rational treatment of PNES may be warranted. Funding: None.