Psychogenic non-epileptic seizures: so-called psychiatric comorbidity and underlying defense mechanisms
Open accessAbstract
In Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fifth edition, psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (PNES) do not have a unique classification as they can be found within different categories: conversion, dissociative, and somatization disorders. The ICD-10, instead, considers PNES within dissociative disorders, merging the dissociative disorders and conversion disorders, although the underlying defense mechanisms are different. The literature data show that PNES are associated with cluster B (mainly borderline) personality disorders and/or to people with depressive or anxiety disorders. Defense mechanisms in patients with PNES with a prevalence of anxious/depressive symptoms are of "neurotic" type; their goal is to lead to a "split", either vertical (dissociation) or horizontal (repression). The majority of patients with this type of PNES have alexithymia traits, meaning that they had difficulties in feeling or perceiving emotions. In subjects where PNES are associated with a borderline personality, in which the symbolic function is lost, the defense mechanisms are of a more archaic nature (denial). PNES with different underlying defense mechanisms have different prognoses (despite similar severity of PNES) and need usually a different treatment (pharmacological or psychological). Thus, it appears superfluous to talk about psychiatric comorbidity, since PNES are a different symptomatic expression of specific psychiatric disorders.
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
PNES are supposed to be not only a neuropsychiatric symptom, but an unconscious psychological defense mechanism to protect affected individuals from unwanted and overwhelming emotions in order to maintain their intrapsychic balance.
“Therefore, PNES are supposed to be not only a neuropsychiatric symptom, but an unconscious psychological defense mechanism to protect the affected individuals from unwanted and overwhelming emotions in order to maintain their intrapsychic balance (14, 16).”
From Combined Fainting and Psychogenic Non-epileptic Seizures as Significant Therapy Hurdles in Blood-Injury-Injection Phobia: A Mini-Review and Case Report (2022) · cites this paper as [14]
In a fraction of cases, anxiety disorder can present with psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (PNES).
“In a fraction of cases, anxiety disorder can also present with so-called psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (PNES) (13, 14).”
From Combined Fainting and Psychogenic Non-epileptic Seizures as Significant Therapy Hurdles in Blood-Injury-Injection Phobia: A Mini-Review and Case Report (2022) · cites this paper as [14]
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
The citation lists haven’t been fetched yet
References 47 · Cited by 63
Research works printed but not linked: 5
- [1]Jaspers K Allgemeine Psychopathologie Ein Leitfaden für Studierende, Ärzte und Psychologen [General Psychopathology: A Textbook for Students, Physicians and Psychologists] Berlin J. Springer 1913 German
- [8]American Psychiatric Association Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Text Revision (DSM-IV-TR) 4th ed Washington (DC) American Psychiatric Press 2000
- [10]American Psychiatric Association Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) 5th ed Washington (DC) American Psychiatric Press 2013
- [12]World Health Organization The ICD-10 Classification of Mental and Behavioural Disorders, Clinical Descriptions and Diagnostic Guidelines Geneva WHO Press 1992
- [38]Lerner P Psychoanalytic Perspective of the Rorschach Hillsdale (NJ) Analytic Press 1998
- Authors
- Beghi, M., Beffa Negrini, P., Cerri, C., Peroni, F., Magaudda, A., Perin, C., & Cornaggia, C. M.
- Affiliations
- University of Milano-Bicocca (IT)
- University of Messina (IT)
- Corresponding author
- Beghi, Massimiliano
- Venue
- Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2015-09
- Volume
- 11
- Pages
- 2519
- ISSN
- 1176-6328 (ISSN-L)
- 1178-2021
- PMC
- PMC4599147
- OpenAlex
- W1847717073
- Cited by
- 63
- References
- 47
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 7 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 10 · 2019: 7 · 2018: 6 · 2017: 6 · 2016: 4 · 2015: 1
- FWCI
- 0.78
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- BOA (University of Milano-Bicocca) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Dove Medical Press (Taylor and Francis Group) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Psychosomatic Disorders and Their Treatments
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Epilepsy research and treatment
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychoanalysis and Psychopathology Research
- Keywords
- psychogenic non-epileptic seizures, defense mechanisms, psychiatric comorbidity, borderline personality disorder, conversion disorder, dissociative disorders, somatization disorder, alexithymia, repression, denial, Split, anxiety disorders, depressive disorders, ICD-10, prognosis, treatment
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
