Epilepsy and OCD?

[um-adam]

Has anyone been diagnosed with both epilepsy and OCD? What medications are you taking? Are they helping?

[AnnaM]

My 4yr old has OCD with his epilepsy....Taking no meds for the OCD tho. His neurologist said if it gets bad enough that we can't help, she will send him to a child pschologist who will teach him to control...

[um-adam]

Thank you, Anna. That must be extremely tough...
My son is 17 and is taking lamictal for the epilepsy and citalopram for the OCD. It's only been a few days since he received these prescriptions, so it is too early to know if they are working. I am, of course, hopeful.

Did your son's doctor say that the epilepsy is responsible for the OCD?

[hootie]

OCD can be caused by an autoimmune reaction post strep infection. It can happen months after the actual infection. This happened to both my children last year. One has absence seizures, the other does not have E.

See http://pandasnetwork.org

Antibiotics did not help with the symptoms, but homeopathy did.

[AnnaM]

Thank you, Anna. That must be extremely tough...
My son is 17 and is taking lamictal for the epilepsy and citalopram for the OCD. It's only been a few days since he received these prescriptions, so it is too early to know if they are working. I am, of course, hopeful.

Did your son's doctor say that the epilepsy is responsible for the OCD?

Yes, hard on him - us....I think I will probably have him see the child psychologist over the next several months...I don't want to do anything to make worse, if that's possible. My sons neurologist said they would teach him 'tools' to use to help with it. So, no meds..

Yes, his pedi neurologist said that his OCD was connected to his epilepsy. I've had suspicion my sons had OCD ever since he was 2ish? ...So, its been a few years now.

[elizzza811]

I've had OCD since the age of 12 or 13, 'classic' (and crippling) OCD since the age of 19 or 20. In fact my OCD is now so severe that my house is actually a dusty, cluttered mess. Hand-washing, cleaning, ordering, arranging, symmetry, checking - I have them all. It's gotten worse over the years to where I can barely function as a human being and basically gave up on ever being 'normal' and 'catching up' with this mess, because cleaning one item or one tiny area of a room (a counter, for instance) can take an entire day. I've even run out of hot water OCD-rinsing an item.

I've been on all sorts of medications over the years (nothing right now), but none of them had any affect whatsoever on my OCD, though Klonopin once helped somewhat with the associated 'anxiety' (though not with the rituals themselves). I've been diagnosed with generalized seizures, independent, various types - mostly complex partials, but also simple partials and atonics.

I actually had my strep titers checked - they were fine. But I was diagnosed with Lyme Disease, and some doctors do believe in chronic Lyme. Also, staph in my bloodstream and high titers of several viruses - I know EBV was one of them, but there were others that were higher and I can't even remember which it was that was highest (memory problems). So I do believe an abnormal immune response to some past or present infection might be possible. Sometimes though I wonder if an untreated seizure disorder damaged my brain, essentially causing OCD?

I know too that I had a killer case of the chicken pox when I was a kid - I even have a scar on my face from it. Perhaps that has something to do with my OCD?

Psychologists and behavior therapy won't change anything for me - I would need someone to physically prevent me from OCD-ing to accomplish that, because when I'm face to face with any OCD task, any prior resolve to avoid OCD-ing gets smothered out. Sometimes I even shake when I'm OCD-ing, and I've even had several seizures (complex and partials) while OCD-ing.

[um-adam]

Thanks to those who replied. Eliza, I am sorry you suffer so much. A few months ago, it would have been hard for me to understand. Now I know much more about OCD and understand how debilitating it can be. Anna, I am astounded that someone as young as 2 or 4 can be afflicted with OCD. I pray those who suffer from this, including my son, will all find relief.

[um-adam]

Just an update on my son...
He has been taking the medications I mentioned (lamictal and citalopram) for about two weeks now and has dramatically improved regarding the OCD behaviors. This is some much-needed relief after an absolutely horrible 2-3 month stretch of worsening OCD.

[hootie]

This is great to hear!
Thanks for the update.