Seizures induced by eating

[RobinN]

Some patients take advantage of a refractory postictal period by inducing a seizure to avoid a later attack in an embarrassing setting.

Kind of goes along the line with the other thread where we are discussing the "will" to have a seizure or not.

[Zoe]

Quote :
Some patients take advantage of a refractory postictal period by inducing a seizure to avoid a later attack in an embarrassing setting.
[quote]

Kind of goes along the line with the other thread where we are discussing the "will" to have a seizure or not.

It does have a familiar ring, but I'm very skeptical of others making blankent statements about why people do things (i.e., crazy making). Lot's of people diagnosed with pseudoseizures are told they do it to get attention. Statements like that hark back to Victorian times and show incredible lack of insight into why someone may be experiencing a symptom.GRRR!!!!

[RobinN]

Yes in my research of this, I found similar suggestions. Terrible for the one going through it to feel like others think they are faking the events. I am just not sure I buy into the whole term.

Now going back to the point of this thread, I am understanding that smells and taste can bring on a seizure. So would that also not be a reason to "fear" going to a table to eat. Sets up quite a cycle. If one has stomach seizures, it would be difficult to think about eating also. What a terrible predicamant. Yet as some smells can be relaxing, maybe they can be used to turn the "fear" to pleasure.

Nocturnal seizures are common in some, so of course going to sleep would be frightening. Setting up a pleasurable experience would perhaps turn the tides.

[Zoe]

Yes in my research of this, I found similar suggestions. Terrible for the one going through it to feel like others think they are faking the events. I am just not sure I buy into the whole term.

Now going back to the point of this thread, I am understanding that smells and taste can bring on a seizure. So would that also not be a reason to "fear" going to a table to eat. Sets up quite a cycle. If one has stomach seizures, it would be difficult to think about eating also. What a terrible predicamant. Yet as some smells can be relaxing, maybe they can be used to turn the "fear" to pleasure.

Nocturnal seizures are common in some, so of course going to sleep would be frightening. Setting up a pleasurable experience would perhaps turn the tides.

I think you are right on target! Think kindling and how repetition, creates anticipation [fear] and how the seizures are conditioned over time.

[Zoe]

And here's one more quote from the ILEA article. I think this was my problem but I've quit doing it now.
:)

Seizures induced by thinking

Seizures induced by thinking (Wilkins et al 1982; Goossens et al 1990, Andermann et al., 1998) (“noögenic epilepsy”) occur in response to nonverbal higher cortical function and have been reported with a variety of stimuli, including arithmetic, drawing, playing cards or chess, decision-making, and solving Rubik's cube. These seizures do not typically appear to be activated by reading, writing, or by explicitly verbal tasks, but about 80% of patients are found to have more than one effective trigger. Seizures can be triggered in at least some of these patients without any real or contemplated movement of the hands, e.g., by a task requiring a spoken answer to an orally presented arithmetic or spatial problem. Unlike in primary reading epilepsy, most have spontaneous seizures. The reflex and spontaneous attacks include bilateral myoclonus, absences, and generalized tonic-clonic seizures and almost all reported patients have had generalized convulsions. Often these begin after a period of myoclonic jerks, but myoclonic jerks occurred without a following convulsion in 76% of patients reviewed by Andermann et al. (1998) and 60% of patients had absence seizures often associated with myoclonic jerks. Pure absence epilepsy with seizures triggered by thinking was not seen, but not all patients had myoclonus although some probably had juvenile myoclonic epilepsy. Myoclonic jerks and absence attacks may be ignored or unreported until a generalized seizure occurs and the patient then comes to medical attention. Seizures induced by thinking usually occur in the context of a generalized epilepsy. Partial seizures and clear focal EEG abnormalities have been reported but are the exception. The essential component in the seizure trigger appears to be nonverbal thought, the processing of numeric or spatial information, and possibly sequential decision making.

Seizures induced by thinking are typically associated with both spontaneous and evoked generalized or bilateral synchronous spike or multiple spike and wave complexes. They may only appear after reduction of medications in some patients. Although occasional patients have temporoparietal or frontal spontaneous EEG abnormalities, typically over the right side, these are at times mixed with generalized epileptiform activity. (Beaumanoir et al 1989; Goossens et al 1990).

http://www.ilae-epilepsy.org/Visitor...x_seizures.cfm