Robson2016

From emcawiki
Jump to: navigation, search
Robson2016
BibType ARTICLE
Key Robson2016
Author(s) Catherine Robson, Paul Drew, Markus Reuber
Title The role of companions in outpatient seizure clinic interactions: A pilot study
Editor(s)
Tag(s) EMCA, Epilepsy, PNES, Accompanied interactions, Companions, Diagnostic differentiation, Conversation analysis
Publisher
Year 2016
Language English
City
Month
Journal Epilepsy & Behavior
Volume 60
Number
Pages 86–93
URL Link
DOI 10.1016/j.yebeh.2016.04.010
ISBN
Organization
Institution
School
Type
Edition
Series
Howpublished
Book title
Chapter

Download BibTex

Abstract

Purpose This study explored contributions that patients' companions (seizure witnesses) make to interactions in the seizure clinic and whether the nature of the companions' interactional contributions can help with the differentiation of epilepsy and psychogenic nonepileptic seizures (PNES).

Methods Conversation analysis methods were used to examine video recordings and transcripts of neurologists' interactions with patients referred to a specialist seizure clinic and their companions.

Results The companions' behavior correlated with interactional features previously observed to distinguish patients with epilepsy from patients with PNES. Patients with PNES, but not those with epilepsy, tended to exhibit interactional resistance to the doctor's efforts to find out more about their seizure experiences and, thereby, encouraged greater interactional contribution from companions.

Conclusion The contributions that companions make (in part, prompted by patient's interactional behavior) may provide additional diagnostic pointers in this clinical setting, and a number of candidate features that may help clinicians distinguish between epilepsy and PNES when the patient is accompanied by a seizure witness are described. However, companion contributions may limit the doctor's ability to identify linguistic and interactional features with previously demonstrated diagnostic potential in the conversational contributions made by patients themselves. To help offset potential diagnostic losses, doctors may need to explicitly discuss the role of the companion in the consultation when a seizure witness (or another companion) accompanies the patient.

Notes