barbiturates

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jeffgordon

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my teen in the 90s was given a barbiturate for sleep a strong dose
the next morning we could not wake him his breathing was shallow and eyes rolling back
the eeg was postiive but DR said the med could have spiked it
after pill was stopped seizures stopped but hard to tell if the seizures stopped due to that or the dilantin
however dilantin levels are only 2.3 never higher
 
Hi Jeff,

I'm sorry to hear about your son, it's so hard having to watch our kids suffer. :-(

I'm no help with the medications but I know some knowledgable folks will chime in.

Welcome to cwe. :)
 
Hi Jeff --

Brain medications are especially weird and unpredictable. The most common drug prescribed worldwide to control seizures is a barbiturate (phenobarbitol). So it's very unusual that it caused a seizure for your son.

As for the low Dilantin level -- I had seizure control on that level too. Some of us just respond to lower doses.

Is your son still on medication, or was he able to wean off eventually?
 
he is still on them
no seizures for 15 years he is 30 now
but im starting to believe maybe it was never a seizure but a reaction from the sleeping pill
i tried waking him after only an hour of taking the pill because i noticed his breathing was shallow
 
I think you may be right. Certainly after 15 seizure-free years, I think it's worth having a discussion with his neuro about the possibility of tapering off the medication.
 
If it's childhood-onset epilepsy, there is a good chance that your son could get a remission, so you should definitely see the neurologist about that. It's important that you don't change anything without a neuro because seizures are self-perpetuating and if there is a relapse, it could lead to a long term worsening of epileptic activity. I know nothing about barbiturates but they might want to hospitalise your son for seizure monitoring and taper the meds of gradually to make rebound seizures less likely.
 
I find it odd that a doctor would have prescribed a barbiturate for sleeplessness in the Nineties. Barbiturates are old fashioned drugs that are considerably dangerous in terms of overdose and physical addiction. In the Nineties, it was typical to use benzodiazapines rather than barbiturates for insomnia. Using them for epilepsy seems to be accepted but for insomnia and anxiety, I find it very weird.
 
well if it helps that dr has since lost his license to practice

im thinking maybe it wasnt a seizure i witnessed but some effect of the barbit
 
I can't figure out from our posts whether there was one seizure or many seizures. This is important because usually doctors won't diagnose epilepsy until two or more seizures have taken place. If there was only one seizure, and it happened under the influence of a high dose of barbiturates, that certainly would call the diagnosis into question. If there were many seizures, some of which happened when your son was not taking strong medication, the diagnosis would hold more water. Either way, after 15 years you are very much due for a neurological reassessment.
 
it happened twice in 3 days and he was on the strong pill but it never happened before and after the pill it never happened again but he was also on dilantin after the two
 
what happened was i thought he was breathing shallow tried waking him and couldnt his eyes were kinda rolling i did try walking him around but he was limp
he does remember being walked around
 
There isn't really any way of knowing at this point whether the seizures were related to the barbiturates. All you can do now is see a neurologist to reassess the situation. The reason doctors start anti-convulsants after two seizures is that the probability of more happening increases exponentially after that. Then they self-perpetuate, which leads to a vicious cycle. So whilst it wasn't necessarily a bad idea to start the dilantin, your son should be having regular appointments with a neurologist. My medical aid insists on two neurologist appointments a year, and I have a doctor who also stays up to date with what's going on with my epilepsy. If I don't do my two annual appointments, my medical aid removes all coverage related to epilepsy under the banner of non-compliance. In other words, treatment for epilepsy becomes ineffective and pointless without regular monitoring.
 
all they kept doing was dilantin levels every 2 years and it was always low
nothing ever changed never another EEG since that original 2
and went to foundation last year and they would not give an EEG because they said it was pointless
so confusing
 
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