Functional seizures are common and harmful. They look like epileptic seizures but are not caused by the excess electrical discharges in the brain that arise in epilepsy. Our understanding of the mechanisms that give rise to functional seizures is limited, and for this reason the development of novel treatments for functional seizures is also limited. Recent research by our and other groups has shown that interoception may play an important role in the development of functional seizures. Interoception refers to the process by which the nervous system senses, interprets and integrates information from inside the body. Research has shown that altered interoception is linked to functional seizures. We have shown that patients with functional seizures have a reduced ability to accurately identify signals from within their bodies, such as their heartbeats. The worse their ability, the greater their seizure severity and higher their levels of other unwanted symptoms. In separate research other groups have shown that interoceptive training, that is actively training an individual to better recognise signals from their body, can reduce levels of anxiety and the levels of unwanted symptoms. In this study we therefore plan to explore the feasibility of interoceptive training in patients with functional seizures.
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Proportion of patients with functional seizures who are eligible for our pilot study who agree to be enrolled in intervention arm of ADIE-FS.
Timeframe: 24 months
Proportion of participants who complete the ADIE-FS programme of treatment.
Timeframe: 24 months
Proportion of participants with a 3-item Client Satisfaction Questionnaire (CSQ-3) score ≥ 9 for the ADIE-FS intervention (range of scores is 8 to 32 where higher scores indicate increased satisfaction).
Timeframe: 24 months
Proportion of participants taking part in intervention with a mean score on the Treatment Expectancy Questionnaire (TEQ) ≥ 50% for the ADIE-FS intervention (higher scores indicate greater expectancy that the intervention will be useful).
Timeframe: 24 months