Preliminary results of a brief group psychoeducational intervention for patients with psychogenic non-epileptic seizures of Buenos Aires, Argentina.

SARUDIANSKY, MERCEDES; LANZILLOTTI, ALEJANDRA INÉS; ARECO PICO, MARIA MARTA; TENREYRO, CRISTINA; VALDEZ PAOLASINI, MARÍA GABRIELA; D'ALESSIO, LUCIANA; KOCHEN, SILVIA; SCÉVOLA, LAURA; KORMAN, GUIDO PABLO

Buenos Aires

Congreso; 50th International Annual Meeting, Society Psychotherapy Research (SPR); 2019

SocietyPsychotherapy Research (SPR)

Psychogenic Non-Epileptic Seizures (PNES) constitute a challenge both for diagnosis and treatment. Group psychoeducational interventions have been developed to achieve a better understanding of the diagnosis; a decrease in the frequency of seizures,and an improvement on its management. To enhance interpersonal links and the quality of life ofpatients with this condition are also important goals of these therapeutic approaches.The World Health Organization warns about the difficulty of extrapolating treatments with empirical support from one context to another. For this reason, we adapted a group psychoeducational cognitive-behavioral intervention to local population, oriented to patients with PNES and their relatives, who attend to a public hospital in Buenos Aires, Argentina. In this work we will present the foundations on which this intervention was designed. Based on the qualitative interviews administered to patients and relatives in the last four years, we concluded that patients required more guidance to reinforce the understanding of their illness, to be motivated on attending a psychological treatment, and to be able to normalize their experience.The intervention is structured in three group meetings, two hours long each, with a biweekly frequency. In the first meeting, the differences between epilepsy and PNES are highlighted. The second meeting is aimed to helppatients to identify and deal with emotions, and to link them to their seizures. The objective of the third encounter is oriented to strengthen the resources patients have for daily life with PNES. The results of three intervention groups carried out in 2017-2018 will be discussed.