Neurologists who treat epilepsy face substantial difficulty distinguishing “true” seizures caused by abnormal electrical discharges from seizures that are caused by psychological factors (psychogenic nonepileptic seizures, or PNES). The distinction is important, because the treatments for electrical seizures and PNES are very different–PNES can be provoked by a suggestion, whereas electrical seizures cannot. Can doctors ethically use placebos or suggestion in order to provoke psychogenic nonepileptic seizures? If this is deception, is it justified? How much deception is permissible?

Panelists

• Selim Benbadis MD, University of South Florida College of Medicine
• Benjamin Tolchin MD, Harvard Medical School
• J. Wesley Boyd MD, PhD, Harvard Medical School Center for Bioethics

Neuroethics Seminar Series

This event is part of a series hosted by the Center for Biothics at Harvard Medical School.

Co-sponsors

• The International Neuroethics Society
• The Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics, Harvard Law School
• Center for Law, Brain, and Behavior, MGH
• Institute for the Neurosciences, BWH
• Center for Brain Science, Harvard University
• Department of Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School

With funding from

• Mind Brain Behavior Interfaculty Initiative, Harvard University
• The Harvard Brain Initiative Collaborative Seed Grant Program