ADD/Epilepsy?

Welcome to the Coping With Epilepsy Forums

Welcome to the Coping With Epilepsy forums - a peer support community for folks dealing (directly or indirectly) with seizure disorders. You can visit the forum page to see the list of forum nodes (categories/rooms) for topics.

Please have a look around and if you like what you see, please consider registering an account and joining the discussions. When you register an account and log in, you may enjoy additional benefits including no ads, access to members only (ie. private) forum nodes and more. Registering an account is free - you have nothing to lose!

I

Italianpwr1991

New
Messages
1
Reaction score
0
Points
0
Hello, my name is Michael, I've had Epilepsy for about four years now, and have been having Auras for about eight years.

Now, to the point. As a child I was diagnosed with "minor ADD," the doctors tried multiple medications on me but found that they were "too strong" for the level of ADD I had. I was diagnosed with Epilepsy about four years ago after my first seizure. As a full time college student who is one year away from my BA, I have noticed that over the last few years I seem to have issues memorizing terms, definitions, and so forth. I am believing that my ADD is possibly getting worse, I am having problems focusing when reading and so forth.
Now my question, is it possible that my ADD has gotten worse over the last ten years or so? If so, are there medications that won't effect my epilepsy?

Thanks, Michael
 
Hi Michael, welcome to CWE!

Any chance that your worsening ADD symptoms are related to either your seizure history or to your anti-seizure medication? Both can cause problems with memory and focus. You may want to discuss this with your neurologist.

Many of the ADD/ADHD medications have a stimulant component which can potentially be triggering for folks with epilepsy. In addition, some ADD meds can interact with some anti-seizure meds. So the decision to medicate needs to be done in consult with both a neurologist and a psychiatrist, particularly if your seizures are uncontrolled. Of the ADD meds, there's been a study with one -- Ritalin -- that shows it might not be harmful to people with controlled epileposy, particularly if the dose is kept low. There isn't a lot of data for the other ADD meds and epilepsy, except an indication that Bupropion (Wellbutrin) should be avoided.

You might want to look into neurofeedback. It has shown promise in treating both ADD/ADHD as well as seizures, with little or no side effects. Cons are finding and affording a practitioner. You can read more about it in the links below:
http://www.coping-with-epilepsy.com...g/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130896102
http://www.eeginfo.com/research/adhd_main.php
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom