How reliable is ictal duration to differentiate psychogenic nonepileptic seizures from epileptic seizures?

Abstract

We sought to investigate (1) differences in ictal duration between psychogenic nonepileptic seizures (PNES) and epileptic seizures (ES), (2) the odds of being PNES when seizures last ≥ 5 min, and (3) the value of ictal duration as a diagnostic test to differentiate PNES from ES. We retrospectively reviewed video-EEG recordings and tabulated ictal durations of all PNES and ES. We estimated the mean ictal durations of PNES and ES using linear mixed models. The odds of being PNES when seizures last ≥ 5 min were estimated using logistic regression. We used receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curves to study the overall diagnostic accuracy of ictal duration in differentiating PNES from ES. W..