Treatment Trial for Psychogenic Nonepileptic Seizures

• Status: Completed
• Trial end date: 2013-06-01
• Target enrollment: 0
• Participant gender: All

Summary

The investigators propose that patients who receive targeted pharmacotherapy (sertraline) or focused psychotherapy (cognitive behavioral therapy-informed psychotherapy (CBT-ip) for NES) or combined treatment (CBT-ip + sertraline) will report fewer nonepileptic seizures (NES) compared to patients who receive community care / treatment as usual (TAU). The purpose of this study is to provide pilot testing and data to inform the future multicenter randomized controlled trial based on the hypothesis.

• Phase: Phase 4
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers?: No

Details

• Lead Sponsor: Rhode Island Hospital
• Collaborators: American Epilepsy Society; Epilepsy Foundation; Stanford University; University of Cincinnati
• Treatments: Sertraline

Criteria

Inclusion Criteria:

• Video electroencephalogram (EEG) confirmed diagnosis of NES

• Have at least one nonepileptic seizure per month

• Able to complete self report symptom scales

• Not receiving optimized sertraline

Exclusion Criteria:

• Equivocal EEG findings

• using monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs), pimozide, or sumatriptan

• allergy/sensitivity to sertraline

• current alcohol/drug dependence

• serious medical illness requiring current hospitalization