Treatment of Functional Seizures in Children and Adolescents

Book excerpt: In this treatment manual for functional seizures in children, adolescents, and young adults — ‘young people’ — we present the program developed by the mind-body team at The Children’s Hospital at Westmead, a tertiary care paediatric hospital located in New South Wales, Australia. The team’s Mind-Body Program, organised as part of a consultation-liaison psychiatry service within the Department of Psychological Medicine, works with young people, up to the age of 18 years, who present with functional somatic symptoms, including functional seizures. This manual describes the treatment interventions we have developed over the last 20 years through clinical trial and error, by translating research findings into our clinical practice, and by evaluating our own treatment interventions through prospective cohort studies.