Psychogenic seizures in obsessive-compulsive disorder with poor insight: A case report

Psychogenic seizures or psychogenic nonepileptic seizures occur in various mental disorders, Obsessive-compulsive symptoms can also imitate epileptic partial seizures, but detailed observations of this phenomenon are rare in the literature, A girl of 13 years was referred to the Department of Child Psychiatry because of sudden falls that had occurred during a 1-year period, mainly at school. She had been diagnosed previously as having epilepsy or conversion seizures, After a fall, she demonstrated no response for periods up to 10 minutes, postictal somnolence had occasionally been observed, From the age of 10 years, the patient was reported to have had intrusive recurrent thoughts about dirt and contamination and had also demonstrated some signs of separation anxiety disorder, She was diagnosed as having obsessive-compulsive disorder with poor insight, The chronic falling disappeared completely when behavioral therapy was begun, but the girl still exhibits obsession and separation anxiety. (C) 1998 by Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.