Abstracts

Rationale: The Middle Eastern country of Qatar opened its first Epilepsy Monitoring Unit (EMU) in late 2015. This study compared demographic and clinical characteristics of patients with confirmed epilepsy to those in patients with confirmed psychogenic nonepileptic seizures (PNES). Methods: Data was collected via retrospective chart review on 113 patients admitted for evaluation to the Qatar national health system EMU between November 2015 and May 2017. Results: Seventy-one patients had a confirmed diagnosis (20 PNES, 46 epilepsy, 5 both PNES and epilepsy). Evaluation in 33 patients was inconclusive and 9 had other medical conditions. Patients with PNES were significantly more likely to be primary Arabic speakers (p=.003), and this difference was not explained by education or employment status. The most common referral question in patients with PNES was recurrent/refractory seizures (p=.011), and there was a trend for PNES cases to have more frequent seizures compared to epileptic patients (daily to several per week versus several times a month or less, p= .051). Depression was identified in 47% of epilepsy patients and 65% of PNES patients, and PNES patients had higher mean depression scores on the PHQ-9 than epilepsy patients (p= .014). PNES patients experienced significantly more fatigue (p= .021), and 70% of PNES patients versus 50% of epilepsy patients reported sleep problems. Conclusions: PNES were common occurrences in the EMU in Qatar. Patients with PNES more often suffer from frequent seizures, depression, sleep problems and fatigue compared to those with epilepsy. Culturally sensitive psychiatric care is recommended. Funding: None