Experiencing Seizures

  • Research type

    Research Study

  • Full title

    The visible manifestations and subjective seizure experience of epileptic seizures and non-epileptic attacks (NEAs).

  • IRAS ID

    279311

  • Contact name

    Markus Reuber

  • Contact email

    m.reuber@sheffield.ac.uk

  • Sponsor organisation

    Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS FT

  • Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier

    20089, STH

  • Duration of Study in the UK

    1 years, 0 months, 1 days

  • Research summary

    In previous research a modified version of the Psychosensory-Psychomotor Phenomena Interview (PPPI) was used to ask epilepsy patients about their subjective seizure experiences and found to be an effective tool to capture subjective seizure symptoms in detail. Previous research has also highlighted the potential diagnostic relevance of whether particular symptoms are freely reported or only emerge in response to prompting from a clinician. To gain a better understanding of subjective seizure experiences in Nonepileptic Attacks (NEAs) and to compare symptom reporting by patients with NEAs and those with epilepsy, we would like first to ask patients with seizure to freely report their seizure experiences before prompting them to endorse particular symptoms using the PPPI. This will allow us to compare symptom reporting in epilepsy and NEA disorder (NEAD). In addition, we will ask all participants to complete self-report measures of anxiety, depression and previous traumatization to learn more about how other conditions or experiences influence patients’ seizure experiences and how these experiences are reported. Our dataset will not only allow us to describe the breadth of seizure experiences but also to look for clustering of particular seizure experiences with other symptoms or features or other disorders (such as anxiety, depression or posttraumatic stress disorder). We will be able to compare reported and observed seizure manifestations in NEAs and epilepsy and to measure whether patients with epilepsy mention more symptoms without prompting in freely given seizure accounts than patients with NEAs.

  • REC name

    Yorkshire & The Humber - Sheffield Research Ethics Committee

  • REC reference

    20/YH/0119

  • Date of REC Opinion

    26 Oct 2020

  • REC opinion

    Further Information Favourable Opinion