Positive and Negative Affects and Coping Strategies in Patients with Psychogenic Non-Epileptic Seizure, Temporal Lobe Epilepsy and Control Groups

Abstract

To examine positive/negative affects and coping strategies in patients with psychogenic nonepileptic seizure, temporal lobe epilepsy and in control group. 33 patients diagnosed with psychogenic non-epileptic seizure and 33 patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (after being diagnosed with psychogenic non-epileptic seizure and temporal lobe epilepsy) were selected according to the criteria of inclusion and exclusion in the study. At the end, 33 non-patients were selected from non-neurological and nonpsychiatric clinics as control group and were compared with the two groups diagnosed with psychogenic non-epileptic seizure and temporal lobe epilepsy. Data were collected via positive Affect and Negative Affect Scale (PANAS) of Watson, Clark &Tellegen and Lazarus' Ways of Coping Questionnaire (WCQ). Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was used for data analysis. The test showed a significant difference in items of positive/negative affects and coping strategies of patients with psychogenic non-epileptic seizure and those with temporal lobe epilepsy and the control group (p<0.05). Patients with temporal lobe epilepsy and psychogenic non-epileptic seizure compared to the control groups obtained higher scores on subscales of negative emotions. That is, the two groups compared to control group experience more negative emotions. The positive emotions in both groups compared to the control groups were in the lower levels. With regard to coping strategies, patients with psychogenic non-epileptic seizure compared to patients with temporal lobe epilepsy and control groups, had less active and problem-focused mechanisms when faced with difficulties and problems. In other words, when faced with problems, they use "escape-avoidance" mechanism rather than planning or any planful problem solving strategies.

Avoidance in nonepileptic attack disorder: A systematic review and meta-analyses

“…Urbanek, Harvey, McGowan and Agrawal [32] did not match for participant gender, however no significant difference was identified between the proportion of males and females in each group. Bagherzade, Mani, Firoozabadi and Asadipooya [43], Goldstein and Mellers [26] and Testa, Krauss, Lesser and Brandt [48] all had more females in the NEAD group.…”

“…Study quality is outlined in Table 2. Five of the studies received an overall rating of strong [26,[39][40][41][42]; eight received an overall rating of moderate [24,32,[43][44][45][46][47][48]; and one received an overall rating of weak [49].…”

“…Myers, Fleming, Perrine and Lancman [49] used an observational cross-sectional design. Four studies compared individuals with NEAD to both an HC group and an EC group [40,43,45,48]. Six compared NEAD participants to an HC group only [24,32,42,44,46,47].…”

“…It is worth noting that although Goldstein and Mellers [26] used EEG-telemetry for the majority (56%) of NEAD participants, they were not able to confirm diagnosis using this technique for all participants due to insufficient NEA frequency for EEGtelemetry, in which instance history and clinical opinion of two consultant neurologists/neuropsychiatrists were used. Bagherzade, Mani, Firoozabadi and Asadipooya [43] stated that NEAD diagnosis was confirmed via a physician, however further details were not provided. The remaining studies either did not confirm the NEAD diagnosis or report enough information to determine if participants' NEAD diagnosis was confirmed [39,42,47,49].…”

“…Thirteen studies measured avoidance using self-report measures [26,32,[40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48]51]. The reviewer identified all measures to be reliable and valid, as all had available psychometric data.…”