title: Using patient history to distinguish between patients with non-epileptic and patients with epileptic events.
abstract: Information obtained during psychological evaluations of 93 patients with epileptic events (EEs) and 63 with nonepileptic events (NEEs) was used to test the relative contributions of multiple risk factors to prediction of NEEs during video/EEG monitoring. The best group of independent predictors of NEEs comprised: (1) age at first spell, (2) symptoms of a psychiatric diagnosis other than anxiety or depression, (3) marital instability, (4) symptoms of an anxiety disorder other than panic disorder, and (5) years of education. Report of childhood abuse or neglect and taking psychotropic medication correlated with most of the other risk factors for NEEs. It may not be necessary to gather data on all of the variables shown to be associated with NEEs. Although there is a high prevalence of risk factors for psychopathology in patients with EEs, it is lower compared with that of patients with NEEs, and patients with EEs are less likely to report multiple risk factors.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Allegheny General Hospital, Pittsburgh, PA, USA. cschramk@wpahs.org
authors.forename: Carol J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Schramke
authors.forename: Kelly A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Kay
authors.forename: James P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Valeriano
authors.forename: Kevin M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Kelly
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003625:Data Collection; D004569:Electroencephalography / Q000379:methods; D004827:Epilepsy / Q000145:classification* / Q000175:diagnosis*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D012307:Risk Factors; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D014741:Video Recording