Neurobiology of Psychogenic Movement Disorder and Non-Epileptic Seizures

The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, part of the National Institutes of Health, is looking for individuals to participate in clinical studies. Participating in clinical research allows you to play an active role in developing future treatments for many disorders of the brain and nervous system. The information below is designed to help you quickly learn about actively recruiting research studies for which you or someone you know may be eligible.

Description:

This study is part of a series of studies that will explore how the mind and the brain work to cause episodes of uncontrollable shaking in people who have no known underlying brain or medical disorder. The study is conducted at NIH and at the Brown University Rhode Island Hospital.

Healthy volunteers and people with psychogenic movement disorders (PMD) or non-epileptic seizures (NES) who are 18 years of age or older may be eligible for this study.

Patients with NES have 3 teaspoons of blood drawn. The blood is tested for two genes that are normally found in healthy individuals to see if they are found more frequently in patients with uncontrolled shaking.

Patients with PMD have blood drawn for testing and also undergo functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to look at how the brain functions while the subject performs a specific task. MRI uses a strong magnetic field and radio waves to obtain images of body organs and tissues. During the scan, the subject lies on a table that can slide in and out of the scanner, a metal cylinder. The scan lasts about 60 to 90 minutes, during which the subject may be asked to lie still for up to 10 minutes at a time and to perform tasks, such as identifying the gender of faces shown on a screen.

Healthy volunteers may have blood drawn for genetic testing or fMRI or both.

Eligibility Criteria:

Please follow this link for trial eligibility information to share with your doctor.

Study Design: 

Observational

Study Locations: 

Multiple US locations

For more information:

Contact: Elaine P Considine, R.N.; telephone: (301) 435-8518; email:considinee@ninds.nih.gov; or  Kathrin Czarnecki, M.D.; telephone: (301) 444-3347; email: czarneckik@mail.nih.gov
Visit:  http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00500994?term=conversion+disorder&rank=10

Last Reviewed January 3, 2013