The clinical management of seizure disorders in prisoners often is difficult. This task is more challenging when a toxicity syndrome develops secondary to anti-convulsant therapy for epilepsy. Additionally, prisoners may develop pseudoseizures (PS) or pseudo-toxicity syndrome (PTS) for secondary gain. The co-occurrence of these disorders has not been reported previously in the literature. Since the above issues can be very complex, patients (especially prisoners) with PS and/or PTS appear to be best served by a biopsychosocial multi-disciplinary team approach for both diagnosis and treatment.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Derro, R. (1978). Admission health evaluation of a city-county workhouse. Minnesota Medicine, 61: 333-337.
2.
Gardner, D., & Goldberg, R. (1982-83). Psychogenic seizures and loss. International Journal of Psychiatric Medicine, 12 (2): 121-128.
3.
Gunn, J. (1973). Affective and suicidal symptoms in epileptic prisoners. Psychiatric Medicine, 3: 108-114.
4.
Gunn, J. (1977). Epileptics in prison. London: Academic Press.
5.
Hauser, W., & Kurland, W. (1975). The epidemiology of epilepsy in Rochester, Minnesota, 1935 through 1967. Epilepsia, 16: 1-66.
6.
Healton, E. (1981). The diagnosis and treatment of epilepsy in the prison setting. Journal of Prison Health, 1: 134-143.
7.
King, L., & Young, Q. (1978). Increased prevalence of seizure disorders among prisoners. Journal of the American Medical Association, 239: 2674-2675.
8.
Krumhole, A., & Niedermeyer, E. (1983). Psychogenic seizures: A clinical study with follow-up data. Neurology, 33: 498-502.
9.
Lesser, R., Kueders, H., & Dinner, D. (1983). Evidence for epilepsy is rare in patients with psychogenic seizures. Neurology, 33: 502-504.
10.
Liske, E., & Forster, F. (1964). Pseudoseizures: A problem in the diagnosis and management of epileptic patients. Neurology, 14: 4149-4149.
11.
Novick, L., DellaPenna, R., Schwartz, E. S., Remmlinger, E. E., & Lowenstein, B. (1977). Health status of the New York City prison population. Medical Care, 11: 205-217.
12.
Whitman, S., Coleman, T., Patmon, C., Desai, B., Cohen, R., & King, L. (1984). Epilepsy in prison: Elevated prevalence and no relationship to violence. Neurology, 34: 775-782.
