Ask the Patient: Goals for Functional seizure treatment

Area of Science:

• Neurology
• Psychiatry
• Rehabilitation Medicine

Background:

• Functional seizure (FS) treatment trials often focus on clinician-defined outcomes.
• Patient-centered goals for functional seizure treatment have not been extensively studied.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine and categorize patient-defined treatment goals in adults with functional seizure.
• To compare patient priorities with clinician-defined outcomes in functional seizure treatment.

Main Methods:

• A cohort of 826 adults with functional seizure (FS) undergoing outpatient treatment had their treatment goals reviewed.
• Goals were categorized to identify the most common patient priorities.

Main Results:

• The most frequent patient goals related to functional improvement (abstract and concrete), accounting for 42.1% of all goals.
• Seizure management was a priority for 32.5% of patients, while seizure education and psychiatric tools were less frequent goals.
• Patient-defined functional improvement goals were prioritized more than reduced event frequency, a common medical outcome.

Conclusions:

• Functional seizure treatment success should equally prioritize patient-centered functional improvement goals alongside medically-defined outcomes.
• Rehabilitation metrics may be as important, or more important, than traditional medical outcomes for adults with functional seizure.
• Future functional seizure clinical trial designs should incorporate patient-defined goals to enhance treatment relevance and effectiveness.