Epilepsy and auditory hallucinations

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Hi finiteguy -- Any chance you can get a referral to neurologist at the Beth Israel in Boston? I had decent experiences with there epilepsy department, and the head of the Dept. Steven Schachter is excellent: http://www.healthgrades.com/physician/dr-steven-schachter-y3nj3

I do think you should insist on medication review -- which is definitely recommended with long-term use of Risperidone, especially in the elderly. It can cause dizziness and other problems with motor skills, and is clearly problematic for your wife.
 
Hi everyone, I finally brought my wife to a new psychiatrist and he says she is definitely not schizophrenic nor does she have schizo effective disorder. He is scheduling and EEG and we will also be seeing a neurologist. I asked about the seizure issues, given my wife's family history, and he is going to test for that, but he mentioned that the auditory hallucinations may only occur during a seizure and not continuous as my wife has these hallucinations all of the time. I'm not sure, but I'm going to look into it. The impotant thing is that my wife is weaning off of those horrible anti psycotics that Lahey Clinic started her on 15 years ago...This is a travesty. The new doctor also knows of the doctor who initially labeled my wife as schizophrenic and he was not impressed with that doctor. It has been suggested by other medical people that I should think about suing the Lahey Clinic for this travesty. I don't think I will bother, I just want my wife back the way she was 15 years ago...I miss her. I'm hoping that the anti psycotics haven't caused a of damage. If they have, then I will consider legal action.
 
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I am SO happy to hear that you have made some steps and are on the way to EEG and a Neurologist opinion and that she will wean off the drug that is highly suspect in all of this.

I agree not to get lost in the legal stuff. It's a long road moving from where she is at to a new start at life. You don't want get to bogged down in the past-- at least not right now.

If your wife can recover her spirit it will outweight any physical or intellectual hits from any misdiagnosis or drug.

Let us know how it goes with the Neurologist.
 
finiteguy said:
Thank you so much. I'm not sure if what I witnessed was an actual seizure, but sometimes when she walks, she stops because it appears that her brain can't tell her how to take the step. Not sure if that is a seizure but, these anti psycotics are really bad. She never really took large doses. I think 2 mg /day of risperdone.
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Risperdone is a VERY bad Anti Psychotic. I have seen several people that have been on it. It reduces people to nothingness, so to speak. I have Bipolar1 and Complex PTSD and have been on the psych ward once for a month is how I saw this. People on AP seem to have a hard time controlling body parts when on high doses. Horrible things take place there. Oh God, never again!
 
finiteguy it sounds like you and your wife are on the right path with right doctor now, and I'm thrilled to hear it. Keep us posted.
 
Thank you, I will keep you posted. This has been pure hell for me for the past 15 years. Most people don't understand why I stuck out my marriage for so long. It has been very difficult, but I realize it is not her fault...she didn't ask for any of this.
Thanks again, all, I will keep you posted.
 
finiteguy said:
Hi all, I am new to this forum. I have a question, but need to give you some back ground.
My wife of 35 years was diagnosed with schitzo effective disorder about 15 years ago. Her symptoms are auditory hallucinations, she hears voices that are not there. She has been taking anti-psychotic drugs for 15 years to stop the auditory hallucinations and they have not been effective. She gained 100 lbs from the medication, and her health is terrible. Recently we found a new therapist and she doesn't agree with the schitzo effective disorder diagnosis. My wife is 65 years old, and the therapist says that it is unusual for people to get that disease at 50. In addition, the drugs do nothing.
My wife's mom had epilepsy...so there may be a genetic connection, that is to say, my wife may possibly have seizures that cause the hallucinations.
It's the only thing that makes sense. I am so upset that the doctors didn't test her years ago. They haven't concluded that she is having seizures, but several years ago when my wife was waking up, I saw her have a severe tremor, like she was having some sort of seizure. I don't have any experience with this, and any advice is greatly appreciated. I may be getting ahead of myself here, but the epilepsy/seizure connection seems to fit. Not sure what they would give her for meds if it turns out that this is the problem.
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Hi All: I posted this several months ago about my wife hearing voices. Her psychiatrist finally concluded that she I not schitzophrenic. Be is not sure what the problem is,but as I mentioned before her mom was epileptic. The doctor prescribed Gabapentin. We noticed that this med is muting the auditory hallucinations. This is a break thru because she was on anti psycotics for years and they did no good. Anyway, thank you all for your previous comments and support on all of this. Hopefully this med will continue to surpress the voices.
 
It has been a long time since I posted here. We thought that my wife's auditory hallucinations was due to seizures...but the nuerologist wouldn't buy it....so my wife continued to take anti psycotics. She has been taking Risperdone for 16 years. She now has lost the use of her left foot and an EMG test reveals that she has anterior horn cell disorder and upper motor neuron issues. I did some research on my own because the doctors are jerking us around and wont see us until next week....so they give us this EMG report and it's easy enough to look it up and see that it may very well be ALS. My question is, did the risperdone cause this disorder? The doctors will never admit it because as we all know, the medical industry is run by lawyers.
 
Stories like this make me so angry.

There was a time back in the dark ages of neurological history when all epileptic cases were classified automatically as mental illnesses.
Many people were thrown into psychiatric "hospitals", little more than jails really, to keep them sedated and out of sight.

It seems like your wife has been living the modern day version of that hell.

I wish you both well. I hope she can find some healing now that the true nature of her illness is known.
 
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