Gender differences in manifestations of psychogenic non-epileptic seizures in Iran

Psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (PNES) are more prevalent among women. We investigated the potential differences in demographic and clinical characteristics of PNES between women and men.

In this prospective study, all patients with a clinical diagnosis of PNES (based on ictal recordings) were recruited at the outpatient epilepsy clinic at Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, from 2008 through 2012. The epileptologist interviewed all the patients. We compared the demographic and clinical characteristics and seizure semiology of PNES between women and men.

Two hundred and twenty-two patients were diagnosed as having PNES. One hundred and eighty-eight patients had video-EEG recordings available and included in the study. One hundred and twenty-nine (69%) were female and 59 (31%) were male. There were no significant differences between women and men with PNES with regard to demographic, clinical and semiological characteristics.

We did not observe any significant demographic differences between women and men with PNES. Likewise, seizure characteristics and semiology were very similar in both genders. It appears that an Islamic lifestyle (in Iran) has little influence on the sex ratio and clinical manifestations of PNES compared with the Western studies.