Dissociation in Patients with Epilepsy and Functional Seizures: A Narrative Review of the Literature

Historically, dissociation has been difficult to describe and assess. In the late 1800’s, functional seizures, dissociative phenomena, ictal symptoms, as well as other difficult-to-explain presentations were grouped together under the term “hysteria” and were famously studied by French neurologist Jean- Martin Charcot [1]. Today, what was formerly called hysteria is seen as distinct disorders ranging from DSM-5 dissociative disorders and functional neurological symptom disorder (conversion disorder) to complex sensory changes now recognized as ictal phenomena.

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