When dealing with families that have been somatically fixated, it is important to initially focus on the symptoms, while not getting dragged into the way that the symptoms have become a centrally organizing event for the family. This allows the clinician to connect with the family around the physical symptoms, which they have become hypervigilant…

Most parents are used to erratic sleep patterns and mood swings in their teenagers. When these occur in an adolescent with seizures, however, the parent may wonder if sleep and mood problems are related to seizures. Sorting out the cause and effects of sleep in an adolescent with seizures can be confusing. Since stress can be a contributor to both…