Abstracts

Rationale: Rationale: Little is known about psychiatric vulnerabilities in youth with non-epileptic seizures (NES). We hypothesized that NES subjects would report higher rates of somatization, anxiety sensitivity, avoidant coping behaviors, perceptions of parental rejection and overprotection, as well as more distressing daily life events than their sibling controls. Methods: Methods: This is a cross-sectional multisite study that will recruit a total of 104 subjects, including 52 children with NES and 52 sibling controls. Here, we present data from the pilot sample of the 44 subjects (22 children with NES and 22 siblings) recruited to date. Subjects with NES were recruited from five US pediatric hospitals (Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago, Cleveland Clinic; Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford, the Minnesota Epilepsy Group, and UCLA). Subjects with NES were boys and girls, aged 8-18 years, who had a sibling in the same age range. All subjects with NES had video EEG (vEEG) confirmation of NES. So far, 22 subjects with NES and 22 controls (siblings) completed the Children s Somatization Inventory (CSI), Childhood Anxiety Sensitivity Index (CASI), Parental Bonding Instrument (PBI), Children s Hassles Scale (CHS), and Children s Coping Questionnaire (CCQ). Subjects and siblings were compared on these measures using mixed models with family as a random effect. Two-tailed tests of significance at the 0.05 level were used in order to be conservative in data interpretation at this phase of the study.Results: Results: NES subjects scored significantly higher than siblings on measures of somatization (CSI) (p=0.0004), anxiety sensitivity (CASI) (p=0.008) and coping difficulties (CCQ): venting factor scale, (p=0.05), expressing feelings (solitary yelling, crying, hitting pillow) subscale (p=0.04), and self-calming subscale (p=0.05). There were trends toward higher scores on the paternal overprotection subscale of the PBI (p=0.06), and the sum of negative events subscore of the CHS (p = 0.08). Conclusions: Conclusions: Children and adolescents with NES have significantly higher rates of somatization and anxiety sensitivity, and are more likely to use potentially less effective coping styles compared to siblings. Knowledge of these risk factors lends further understanding of the psychiatric profile of children and adolescents who suffer from NES.