Current approach to differential diagnosis of epileptic seizures and pseudo-seizures

Epileptic seizure is the emergence of various transient signs and symptoms resulting from abnormal excessive electrical discharges and synchronous activity. Pseudoseizure can be defined as clinical events that resemble epileptic attacks which are not associated with central nervous system dysfunction. It is difficult to differentiate between pseudoseizures and epileptic seizures. Treatment of pseudoseizures like epileptic seizures causes the use of unnecessary and inappropriate antiepileptic medications. Patients refer to emergency polyclinics again and again, and examinations are repeated needlessly. Therefore, their life quality deteriorates and this situation causes economic burden at the same time. In this article, we investigate the clinical features, EEG findings, biological parameters and autonomic neural system tests that should be looked out for in order to differentiate between epileptic seizures and pseudoseizures in conjunction with the latest literature studies.