Neurologist, 20 years’ experience, USA

This chapter discusses the experience of a neurologist who works with patients diagnosed with Psychogenic Non-Epileptic Seizures (PNES). There are still a number of neurologists who call this disorder “pseudoseizures,” so the neurologist always try to remind them that the current term is “PNES.” Hearing their condition called “pseudo” bothers many of these patients. Moreover, many of them have not been treated kindly in hospitals and have sometimes been accused of “faking” their symptoms when they come into the hospital, so the least neurologists can do is to not use this term. Unfortunately, getting doctors to stop using “pseudoseizures” is hard to do. The neurologist then describes that the greatest frustration working with patients with PNES is that it can be so difficult to find a therapist who takes their insurance. Even if they do take it, they may sometimes still not want to treat these patients because they do not know much about PNES and so they send them back to the neurologist.