Successful hypnotherapy in an intellectually disabled patient with drug treatment resistant epilepsy

The possibility of psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (PNES) should be considered in patients with treatment-resistant epilepsy for whom hypnotherapeutic approach may be tried as one treatment option. Multimodal epileptic seizures as well as various behavioral and dyskinetic disorders are commonly associated with intellectual disabilities. Differentiation of brain derived epileptic seizures from other non-epileptic seizures requires an extensive anamnesis, clinical follow-up of the patient and video-EEG recording of seizures. We describe a patient with mild intellectual disability whose almost daily, drug-resistant epileptic attacks were found to be psychogenic. Hypnotherapeutic relaxation initiated upon mother's suggestion turned out to be useful.