Can seizures have a prodome phase like migraines?

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kaelieh

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Y'all know how migraines have a prodome phase? Is it possible for seizures to have one? A couple weeks a go before my boyfriend and I went out to dinner, and I just felt weird all through dinner and my stomach was bothering but it's a feeling I couldn't quite describe, it wasn't nausea. After we went to dinner we went to go play blackjack and I was having simple partials all night. I was seeing a light that changes from white to blue and back as it moves from right to left with my right eye and I was having numbness and tingling on the right half of my face and it effected my right arm and my right hand. I had to use my left hand to play. We were playing pitch so only the player looks at their cards and at one point I couldn't even add my own cards together and I deal blackjack for a living.

I know I was having seizures that night, it's just like I could feel them coming on but I thought auras were usually short... Anyone know of any research into a seizure prodome phase kind of like migraines?
 
I'm a bit confused by your question. If the prodromal phase is the first stage of a migraine, and an aura is the first stage of a seizure, I'm not sure why you're attaching the migraine stage to the epileptic seizures? Is it that you think all auras must be short? If so, no, auras can last a long time.
 
Definitely seizures can have a prodrome phase. An aura is very short; seconds to maybe a minute or so, but a prodrome can be much longer lasting. I get them, and this is the term the epilepsy team I see has used. I can't seem to attach a link for you to some of the sites I have just googled for you, but for some people it can last hours.
 
Masterjen, prodrome would be the correct word--it simply means the onset of a medical attack. It can refer to the start of a psychotic break as well. An aura is not a migraine prodrome, though. That is as physiologically and symptomatically specific as an epileptic aura is. The two are very different.
 
masterjen said:
Definitely seizures can have a prodrome phase. An aura is very short;
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Seizures have auras, sometimes they can last a long time.

masterjen said:
but a prodrome can be much longer lasting. I get them, and this is the term the epilepsy team I see has used.
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Do they use the word "prodrome" for your seizures or are they speaking of headaches?

masterjen said:
I can't seem to attach a link for you to some of the sites I have just googled for you,
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Maybe because some of the google sites aren't reliable. :ponder:

More reliable website are the ones that I had posted earlier and this one from "The Epilepsies":

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK2609/
Definitions

Focal (synonym=partial) seizure: a seizure that has an initial semiology which indicates or is consistent with initial activation of only part of one cerebral hemisphere.

Generalised (synonym = bilateral) seizure: a seizure that has an initial semiology which indicates or is consistent with more than minimal involvement of both cerebral hemispheres.

Aura: a subjective ictal phenomenon that, in a given patient, may precede an observable seizure; if alone it constitutes a sensory seizure.

~Prodrome: a preictal phenomenon, i.e. a subjective or objective clinical alteration (e.g. ill-localised sensation or agitation) that heralds the onset of an epileptic seizure but does not form part of it.

Aura is not synonymous to prodrome: aura is a seizure itself while prodrome is not a seizure.

Ictus: a sudden neurological occurrence such as a stroke or an epileptic seizure.4

Ictal: the seizure period or events due to a seizure.

Interictal: the interval between seizures.

Postictal: a transient clinical abnormality of central nervous system function that appears or becomes accentuated when clinical signs of the ictus have ended.

Impaired consciousness is defined as the inability to respond normally to exogenous stimuli by virtue of altered awareness and/or responsiveness. Aberrations of behaviour (automatisms) may occur in patients with impaired consciousness. There is considerable evidence that simple partial seizures usually have unilateral hemispheric involvement and only rarely have bilateral hemispheric involvement; however, complex partial seizures frequently have bilateral hemispheric involvement.

Patients may often suffer many minor seizures long before the reported ‘first seizure’ or long after what is considered as their ‘last seizure’.
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I get several kinds of "auras", or simple partials. For the most part they are some kind of "fuzziness" or "shock". However, I also get times when I just don't feel right, and it can last for days. I usually feel that way in the morning. It's kind of like being weak, sick, or "blah". The difference is that it's mostly on my right side, where I have my seizures. It can affect my thinking too, sort of like I'm looking through a fog.

The weak feeling is the very start, or lowest intensity, of seizure activity, followed by fuzziness, then shocks, then various degrees of full blown seizure. I can get any of them and it will usually go away without getting worse. However, when I start getting shocks I know I am in trouble.
 
Prodrome is a very broad term. It just means, "a premonitory symptom of disease" (Merriam Webster) We can say that seizures have a prodrome phase, and that that prodrome phase is more specifically called an aura. Migraines have a prodrome phase, and psychotic breaks also have prodrome phases, as does schizophrenia. But each of those prodromes presents very differently. To answer the OP's question,"Anyone know of any research into a seizure prodome phase kind of like migraines?" A seizure's prodrome phase is very different to a migraine's prodrome phase. An aura can always be called a prodrome but a prodrome is not always an aura. Much like an apple can always be called fruit but fruit is not always an apple.
 
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sometimes you can have a migraine before a seizure.I don't get auras just feeling in my head and it doesn't always happen the seizure.
 
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