Patients who are treated in this program can expect to be treated by an epilepsy specialist who has specialized in epilepsy in women.
Support Staff include epilepsy nurse practitioners and a social worker. This program may offer support groups for women who have epilepsy, brief psychotherapeutic interventions, and community activities.  
Catamenial epilepsy, Issues in female adolescents, pregnancy…

Patients who are treated in the first-seizure clinic are referred here after suffering only one or a few seizures and therefore require more education on seizures and epilepsy and may have different concerns. They can expect to be treated by an epilepsy specialist. Support Staff include epilepsy nurse practitioners and a social worker.

Pediatric epileptologists are knowledgeable in the many particularities of epilepsy and seizures in children and adolescents. There are also many childhood epilepsy syndromes that are best managed by a neurologist with training in diagnosing and treating this age group.  Patients who are treated in the Pediatric Epilepsy Clinic can expect to treated by a pediatric epileptologist, pediatric neuropsychologist and social worker. Additionally, support groups for parents or teens can be formed if there is the need, and advice for school, after-school and summer activities is provided or parents are directed toward helpful resources.

Epilepsy, like other long-term medical disorders, can affect a person’s emotional, psychological, social, and occupational functioning as well as their quality of life. Adjusting to the new diagnosis of epilepsy and other life changes can be challenging. Understandably, shifts in mood and emotional functioning are not an uncommon reaction. Additionally, some patients experience mood changes as a result of seizure activity; this is because electrical discharges in the brain occur in, or close to, brain structures that control emotion. As a result of a combination of these reasons mentioned above, depression and anxiety are much more prevalent in patients who have epilepsy than in the average population.

Detecting depression and anxiety in a patient with epilepsy and starting timely treatment is extremely important. It requires a team approach between the epileptologists and mental health professionals. Once the diagnosis is made, psychotherapeutic interventions can be very useful in treating the symptoms and in helping the patient and their family to cope better with other aspects of seizures and epilepsy. Furthermore, psychological treatment can have a positive and limited effect on seizures since it targets emotional distress which can be a seizure trigger. Research has shown that managing stress and learning effective coping strategies can have a positive effect on seizure frequency and other health related behaviors.

Psychotherapy can be supportive in nature, helping the person strengthen healthy coping mechanisms already in use by the person. It also provides a safe environment where the patient can process his/her reaction to the illness and any secondary changes in his/her life. Additionally, psychotherapy can also teach anxiety reduction and symptom and anger management techniques which can have an important impact on emotional health, as well as personal and professional relationships. Psychological treatment also focuses on wellness with the aim of improving sleep hygiene, diet, exercise, and other aspects of a person’s self-care. Psychological treatment in our programs can be provided in either individual or a group setting and may include cognitive behavioral, mindfulness-based, psychoeducational, and trauma-focused modalities.

Psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (also known as dissociative or functional seizures) are events that resemble epileptic seizures but are provoked by emotional or physical dysregulation and chronic stress rather than abnormal (epileptiform) brain activity. Treatment for psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (PNES) is a team effort by the epileptologist, clinical psychologist, neuropsychologist, and psychiatrist (if needed).

NEREG’s clinicians have a unique and specialized diagnostic and treatment approach for this condition. Once the diagnosis has been made by the epileptologist following VEEG and other testing procedures, a referral is made for a comprehensive neuropsychological assessment that begins with a clinical interview (questions are asked about current and past history, including social, educational, psychological, and medical background). This is followed by a comprehensive neuropsychological assessment that includes a special battery of tests to assess memory, language, attention, and general thinking as well as key emotional factors and personality. With these results, the patient meets with the program director to go over the testing and to make a decision regarding possible treatment options and, if needed, a referral to psychiatry for medication evaluation.

Once it is determined that our program is appropriate for the patient, individual and/or group (12 sessions) psychotherapy can begin. Treatment often targets trauma symptoms, depressive worldviews, anxiety, and problems with anger and stress management. Treatment can be trauma-focused (e.g., prolonged exposure), eclectic (mindfulness-based, CBT, hypnotherapy), or psychoeducational and skills-based. The latter is supportive, but also teaches the patient skills and techniques to learn to reduce or eliminate the non-epileptic events, attain a healthier and adaptive way of functioning, and better stress coping methods. All patients who complete the therapy program are invited to a monthly virtual support group that runs September through June every year. Our PNES program also offers virtual education sessions throughout the year and a yearly conference.