Impaired motor function in patients with psychogenic pseudoseizures.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate motor speed and grip strength in patients with well-documented psychogenic pseudoseizures.


METHODS
We analyzed manual motor speed and grip strength in a group of 40 patients with confirmed psychogenic pseudoseizures (without evidence of concomitant epilepsy) and a group of 40 normal controls matched for handedness and gender, and of comparable age. The two groups were compared with respect to manual motor performance with the dominant hand, nondominant hand, and asymmetry between the dominant and nondominant hands. For the patient sample, we reviewed the neurologic history.


RESULTS
Patients with pseudoseizures performed more poorly than controls with both dominant and nondominant hands. In addition, pseudoseizure patients failed to demonstrate the dominant-hand advantage observed in the normal control subjects on both tasks. The patient group had a high incidence of head trauma and other antecedent neurologic risk factors, and the proportion of left-handers was 3 times higher than expected.


CONCLUSIONS
Bilaterally reduced motor speed and grip strength, reduced intermanual performance asymmetry, the high percentage of left-handers, and historical evidence of antecedent insults to the brain indicate that frontal lobe impairment may be common in patients with psychogenic pseudoseizures.
Sackellares
D K
DK
Department of Neuroscience, University of Florida Gainesville, Florida 32610-0244, USA. sackellares@epilepsy.health.ufl.edu
Sackellares
J C
JC
D000328:Adult; D015897:Comorbidity; D006259:Craniocerebral Trauma / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology*; D018737:Hand Strength / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008950:MMPI / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008297:Male; D019957:Motor Skills Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology; D012307:Risk Factors; D012640:Seizures / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology; D012737:Sex Factors; D020196:Trauma, Nervous System / Q000453:epidemiology; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000453:epidemiology