Reconstruction and validation of a short version of the scale for suspicion of psychogenic non-epileptic seizures in a Japanese cohort

This study validates a shortened diagnostic scale (SS-PNES-short) for identifying functional/dissociative seizures in Japanese patients, reducing the original 15-item scale to 6 items organized into 'emotional stress' and 'psychiatric characteristics' factors. The tool demonstrates acceptable sensitivity but low specificity, with the authors noting that nearly 40% of patients with epilepsy-only seizures were incorrectly identified as having functional seizures, suggesting need for additional epilepsy-specific diagnostic criteria.