A global survey on the attitudes of neurologists and psychiatrists about functional/psychogenic/dissociative/nonepileptic-seizures/attacks, in the search of its name.

Purpose: We conducted an observational study to investigate the opinions of neurologists and psychiatrists all around the world who are taking care of patients with seizures [epilepsy and functional seizures (FS)].
Methods: Practicing neurologists and psychiatrists from around the world were invited to participate in an online survey. On 29th September 2022, an e-mail including a questionnaire was sent to the members of the International Research in Epilepsy (IR-Epil) Consortium. The study was closed on 1st March 2023. The survey, conducted in English, included questions about physicians' opinions about FS and anonymously collected data.
Results: In total, 1003 physicians from different regions of the world participated in the study. Both neurologists and psychiatrists identified "seizures" as their preferred term. Overall, the most preferred modifiers for "seizures" were "psychogenic" followed by "functional" by both groups. Most participants (57.9%) considered FS more difficult to treat compared to epilepsy. Both psychological and biological problems were considered as the underlying cause of FS by 61% of the respondents. Psychotherapy was considered the first treatment option for patients with FS (79.9%).
Conclusion: Our study represents the first large-scale attempt of investigating physicianś attitudes and opinions about a condition that is both frequent and clinically important. It shows that there is a broad spectrum of terms used by physicians to refer to FS. It also suggests that the biopsychosocial model has gained its status as a widely used framework to interpret and inform clinical practice on the management of patients.
Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: Ali A. Asadi-Pooya: Honoraria from Cobel Daruo, Ronak, and RaymandRad; Royalty: Oxford University Press (Book publication); Grant from the National Institute for Medical Research Development. Eugen Trinka has received personal fees from Arvelle/Angelini, Argenx, UCB, Eisai, Bial, Böhringer Ingelheim, Medtronic, Everpharma, Epilog, GSK, Biogen, Takeda, Liva-Nova, Newbridge, Novartis, Sanofi, Sandoz, Sunovion, GW Pharmaceuticals, Marinus; grants from Austrian Science Fund (FWF), Österreichische Nationalbank, European Union, GSK, Biogen, Eisai, Novartis, Red Bull, Bayer, and UCB; other from Neuroconsult Ges.m.b.H., outside this work. Simona Lattanzi has received speaker’s or consultancy fees from Angelini, Eisai, GW Pharmaceuticals, and UCB Pharma, and has served on advisory boards for Angelini, Arvelle Therapeutics, Bial, EISAI, and GW Pharmaceuticals. Mansur Kutlubaev was supported by the Bashkir State Medical University Strategic Academic Leadership Program (PRIORITY-2030). Yamile Calle-López has received fees as a speaker from UCB Pharma. B Mesraoua received Grant from Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF) and HMC Internal Research Grant. Others: none.
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