PROVOCATIVE TESTING FOR NONEPILEPTIC SEIZURES - ATTITUDES AND PRACTICES IN THE UNITED-STATES AMONG AMERICAN-EPILEPSY-SOCIETY MEMBERS

We sent a survey to American Epilepsy Society (AES) members about the use of provocative tests (PT) for the diagnosis of nonepileptic seizur es (NES). The survey was limited to physicians practicing in the Unite d States. Nearly 40% of the respondents routinely used PT to diagnose NES; the technique most often used was intravenous saline. The techniq ues most often used to stop NES were hyperventilation and suggestion a lone. Respondents who routinely induced NES were more likely to consid er these techniques useful than those who did not (p < 0.0001), and th eir patients were less Likely to have difficulty accepting the procedu re than the patients of the other clinicians (p < 0.0001). Thirty-thre e percent of the respondents believed that the application of techniqu es used to induce NES posed an ethical conflict, although there was no difference in the prevalence of this attitude among respondents who d id or did not routinely induce NES.