Seizure metaphors differ in patients' accounts of epileptic and psychogenic nonepileptic seizures.

PURPOSE: To increase understanding of the subjective symptomatology of seizure experiences and improve differential diagnosis by studying the seizure metaphors used by patients with (psychogenic) nonepileptic seizures (NES) and epilepsy.
METHODS: Twenty-one unselected patients taking part in this study were admitted for 48 h of video-EEG (electroenceophalography) observation because of uncertainty about the diagnosis. Eight were proven to have epilepsy, 13 to have psychogenic nonepileptic seizures (PNES). During their admission, patients were interviewed by a neurologist. A linguist blinded to the medical diagnosis identified and categorized all seizure metaphors in verbatim transcripts. Between-group comparisons and logistic regression analysis were carried out.
RESULTS: Of 382 metaphors identified, 80.8% conceptualized seizures as an agent/force, event/situation, or space/place. Most patients used metaphors from all categories, but patients with epilepsy and PNES showed preferences for different metaphoric concepts (differences p = 0.009 to p = 0.039). Patients with epilepsy preferred metaphors depicting the seizure as an agent/force or event/situation. PNES patients more often used metaphors of space/place. Logistic regression analyses predicted the diagnosis of PNES or epilepsy correctly in 85.7% of cases (based on different metaphor types in the each category) or 81.0% (based on all metaphor tokens). DISCUSSION: Patients with epilepsy and PNES have different preferences in the metaphoric conceptualization of their seizures. Epileptic seizures are described as a more external, self-directed entity than PNES, which are depicted as a state or place patients go through. The differentiating value of metaphoric conceptualizations suggests that metaphor preference could form the basis of future diagnostic questionnaires or other diagnostic tools.