Psychosis

Have you experienced

  • peri-ictal psychosis?

    Votes: 1 3.7%
  • ictal psychosis?

    Votes: 10 37.0%
  • post-ictal psychosis?

    Votes: 18 66.7%

  • Total voters
    27

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Phidippus

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After the worst of my seizure headaches I've experienced some very strange thoughts during post-ictal psychotic periods. I also sometimes experience similar thoughts during a seizure. Does anyone here have experience with ictal or post-ictal psychosis? If so, what kind of disturbed thinking have you experienced and how do you cope?
 
I just found this on a quick search:


Fish oil in treatment of psychosis is a hot new research topic.

Many scientists are very impressed by what they’re discovering. And you're going to be excited too.

Medline Plus online encyclopedia defines psychosis as a “loss of contact with reality. This typically includes delusions (false ideas about what’s taking place or who one is) and hallucinations (seeing or hearing things which aren’t there).”

Included in the general definition of psychosis are bipolar disorder, depression, schizophrenia, dementia, hallucinations, extreme excitement, unfounded fears, abnormal emotions, illusions, delusions and confusion.

If some of these descriptions hit home for you, don’t run out for a diagnosis just yet. Remember that psychosis is consistent and often has some chronic expression.

Psychosis can be brought on by illegal or prescription drugs, excess alcohol or anything else that causes the brain to function incorrectly, such as a stroke or Alzheimer’s Disease.

Some people think nutrition has nothing to do with psychosis. But that’s like saying you could live on junk food and still have a long happy healthy life. And we all know that’s not possible.

So, what does the research say?

Recent and on-going scientific studies have found major health benefits with fish oil in treatment of psychosis, including bipolar and depression. Here are just a few of those findings.

Research reported in the Journal of Affective Disorders found that, “Major depressed subjects showed significantly lower total omega 3 polyunsaturated fatty acids…than minor depressed subjects and healthy controls.” (Vol. 26, No. 38, 35-46)

Translation: more dietary fish oil fatty acids equals less depression.

Another study done on subjects with major depressive disorders published in the American Journal of Psychiatry concluded that, “Highly significant benefits of the addition of the omega-3 fatty acid compared with placebo were found by week 3 of treatment.” (Vol. 159:477-479)

Translation: fish oil provides huge health benefits in just 3 weeks.

A study at Harvard University published in the Archives of General Psychiatry found, “Omega 3 fatty acids were well tolerated and improved the short-term course of illness in this preliminary study of patients with bipolar disorder.” (Vol. 56 No. 5)

Translation: Bipolar disorder patients taking fish oil improved.

More research reported in the American Journal of Psychiatry, concluded, “The results of this study suggest that EPA may be a safe and effective form of monotherapy for women with moderately severe borderline personality disorder.” (Vol. 160:167-169)

Translation: Fish oil helps women with severe personality disorder.

Researchers in the psychiatry department at the UK University of Sheffield reported in the Journal of Affective Disorders that, “The findings [of their study] raise the possibility that depressive symptoms may be alleviated by omega 3 PUFA [polyunsaturated fatty acid] supplementation.” (Vol. 48(2-3):149-55)

Translation: Good quality fish oil supplements work for depression.

That's the overview – short, sweet and to the point. This research should make your decision about fish oil treatment of psychosis or even minor depression an easy one.

The fish oil health benefits speak for themselves – naturally.
http://ezinearticles.com/?Fish-Oil-in-Treatment-of-Psychosis&id=393536

There is strong evidence that people with mental health problems have a high risk of physical disorders including, obesity, heart disease and diabetes. These can be worsened by some medications used in treatment. There is also evidence that nutrition affects mental state. This programme is focused on the role of nutrition in the prevention and management of mental disorders and associated physical illnesses and on training mental health staff on these issues.
http://www.nrr.nhs.uk/2005AnnualRep...sp?Code=RCQ&Title=Nutrition+and+Mental+Health

Research in neurofeedback:
http://www.eeginfo.com/research/bipolar_main.html
 
After one of my larger seizures I've found that I'm likely to question anything I say or do. During conversations I'm OK until after I walk away & think about it then I start to think everything I said was stupid or inappropriate. Same if I post anything here, I wonder if I'd posted something wrong & emotionally beat myself up for it.

This only happens with the more intense seizures. I never thought of it as psychosis but I guess it is if defining it as "a loss of contact with reality".
 
I've had postictal psychosis; but they only last for a short
brief period of time, and it usually happens, like the Medical
Doctors implies - just right when I "come out of it"; it's
only temporary. However, I must imply that I do not get
them very much.

Out of all fairness, I did experience psychosis with several
AEDs, and when that happened, I was taken
off of them immediately.
 
This was odd

Last night I woke up at 4 AM & couldn't get back to sleep for 2 or 3 hours. When I finally had to get up at 9 I was so overtired, spaced out & even had some vertigo. My emotions have been rampant, I'm glad I didn't talk to many people because I tend to be hypersensitive & interpret things the wrong way. Even while waiting for my appointment I tried to read a really good book & despite my interest couldn't focus for more than a few sentences. This is usually what happens after one of my more severe seizures but I have no recollection of any seizure whatsoever. Whenever I have nocturnal ones I tend to wake up & despite insomnia, I didn't wake up to any seizure. I had a 3 1/2 hour nap this aft & felt better but was still a bit confused & tired mentally & have been feeling really moody.

As for how I coped with it, I just try to keep my contact with people to a minimum. I feel often feel like trying to communicate or interact is too much of an effort.
 
After reading on another group list, I was directed to this link:
http://www.doctoryourself.com/hoffer_niacin.html

Parents are using Niacinamide and see great results in the emotional state of their children. Now bear in mind, this is a site for autism-mercury and many of these children have been tested for toxicity. However the results made me sit up and consider that this is an area that needs to be checked out. If you have multiple chemical sensitivities this appears to be helping with better mood and clearer thinking.

http://www.doctoryourself.com/hoffer_niacin.html
 
Celiac.com 04/29/2009 - A team of researchers based at UK's prospective University of Highlands and Islands (UHI) have found a link between gluten and schizophrenia. According to their latest findings, proteins found in the gluten of wheat, rye and barley might play a role in triggering schizophrenia in people with a genetic risk for the condition, or in worsening symptoms in people who have the disease.

The research team has been looking into the role played by gluten in schizophrenia and diabetes, as well as hunting for connections between the two disorders. Their research showed that the bodies of certain schizophrenia sufferers could not properly processes gluten, which led to tissue damage.

As a result of these and other findings, researchers now consider genetic risk factors, together with environmental triggers, to be central to development of both schizophrenia and diabetes. Gluten is one such example.

According to senior researcher and reader in genetics, Dr. Jun Wei, more than one-third of all people with schizophrenia show "high levels of antibodies against wheat gluten," and may experience some improvement in symptoms with a gluten-free diet.

Though the studies are still in their early stages, the hypothesis is encouraging, because, as noted by head of UHI department of diabetes and cardiovascular science, Prof Ian Megson, if it is correct, "a simple change in diet might prevent these diseases...in some individuals."
The research is part of two comprehensive studies at UHI into the connections between schizophrenia and diabetes, and the role played by gluten, and is supported by a £300,000 grant from the Schizophrenia Association of Great Britain (SAGB).

It would be interesting to see more research done on the connection between celiac disease and schizophrenia, as other studies have indicated that there is a link.
http://www.celiac.com/articles/21809/1/Gluten-Tied-to-Schizophrenia/Page1.html
 
ive had post ictal psychosis in the past, your not alone. Ive thought my parents were imposters, that i had infact died, seeing people look like reptiles & pigs, unreasonable fear, pseudo religious delusions of grandeur, etc so on, I also attempted suicide one time. Its scary stuff. I use gabapentin as an add on and it seems to make the fear a little easier to take, I also use 6-7 grams of fish oil daily. Short term valium can also alleviate symptoms if severe. (it wakes me up from a psychosis near instantly) RobinN has put in links about gluten, but I believe its the seizure rebound that causes psychosis, in a similar way to post ictal depression, rather than related to gluten in a TLE case. Psychosis & bipolar are ofcourse well associated with TLE. I think self awareness can go a long way, human company can help with the fear and limit psychotic behaviour (self harm etc), and bearing in mind that it will pass in a day or two. Its still a horrible thing to get through, and as much as it can be minimised, theres no easy solution, but Im your brother going through the same stuff on the otherside of the world, and although ive feared going "crazy long term" for years it has always passed in the end. This is a thought to also remember! Fortunate for us a TLE psychosis will pass.
Im actually otherwise a quite sane person, I just happen to have a part time vocation as a psychonaut. (To sound like a total douche..I believe this is the source of both my weakness and wisdom.)
Although i wouldn't wish my experiences on anyone, and don't want to relive them, we are lucky to experience the breadth of the human mind, its frailties torments and beauty, and to come back sane people able to interpret our subjective experience rationally. It always passes!
 
I always struggle with reality after having an episode. Not knowing what is or was something real or had I dreamed it? Of course I have to be told what just happened and where I am sometimes. The blank stare seems to make people uncomfortable.:paperbag:
 
Robin, indirectly related to the topic, I'm mentioning fish oils here & Vitamin D. If one is taking phenytoin, this drug has the potential to cause one's system to not absorb Vitamin D - or folic acid, for that matter.

I've experienced the post-ictal state where I might be angry (abnormal behavior) but for me it's a "normal" part of re-adjusting to the real world again. I've never experienced either the peri- or ictal states during a seizure, although I'm wondering if an aura before a seizure could be classified as a peri-ictal state with the ictal state of the seizure occurring suring the seizure.

Would you - or anyone else - please clarify this for me? Thanks.
 
Robin, indirectly related to the topic, I'm mentioning fish oils here & Vitamin D. If one is taking phenytoin, this drug has the potential to cause one's system to not absorb Vitamin D - or folic acid, for that matter.

Good to know this. I wonder if it would work for someone taking this med to take the vitamins prior to taking the meds. Or at least separating them during the day. This could be a potential problem over time, if the body is not getting these vitamins and or minerals. Fish oil is extremely important for brain health. Vitamin D can be absorbed through the skin from the sun, with about 30 min of exposure.
 
Yes. Temporal Lobe Epilepsy and Bi-Polar Disorder are strongly suspected to be intrinsically linked, though there is no conclusive evidence proving this unholy marriage. I was diagnosed with TLE years after my Bi-Polar Disorder diagnosis. Both conditions manifest the following symptoms: Divine encounters, artisit creation, trancenedent experience and ecstatic communication with the divine. Delusions of self grandure and then over glorifying persons are specific to Bi-Polar activity when in manic state. To date, I've not read that these two latter symptoms are connected to TLE. I've experienced all the aforementioned symptoms and have made the choice to percieve the two disorders as being seperate. The main reason being that Bi-Polar Disorder is highy genetic (not dismissing that Epilepsy can be genetic) and does not spring from early on sexual, emotional or physical abuse (they can, however, exasperate the condition) where as the roots of Temporal Lobe Epilepsy can spring from atrocities committed in childhood.

After my first seizure, which was Tonic Clonic, my MRI proved that the left hippocampal volume of my left brain is 50% less than that of the right. My neurologist did explain that this variance most likely did have to with the stunting of the hippocampus as a result of early on trauma. He also mentioned that Vets with PTSD suffer physiologically in this fashion.

So, Bi-Polar Disorder is not a manifistation from abuse whereas TLE can be. While this is my humble reasoning, I've yet to come across an article addressing this disparity.

If anyone can shed some light or provide a link concerning this division it would be most appriciated. I've exhausted the access I have to research.
 
Both conditions manifest the following symptoms: Divine encounters, artisit creation, trancenedent experience and ecstatic communication with the divine. Delusions of self grandure and then over glorifying persons are specific to Bi-Polar activity when in manic state. To date, I've not read that these two latter symptoms are connected to TLE.

My son has those manifestations. He is Bi-Polar. It is heritary in my family. So is epilepsy.

I have been diagnosed with Temporal Lobe Epilepsy, but not the Bi-Polar. I did not vote because I did not know the difference between, peri-ictal psychosis, ictal psychosis and post-ictal psychosis. Would someone please tell me the difference?

I do go wandering off, I get lost and confused. I do not know if these are a part of psychosis.
 
Then I have ictal psychotic symptoms. I have had 2 bouts with status epilepticus seizures. Thank you, now I can vote.

I just read that phidippus wants to know what kind of disturbed thinking and how I cope. After any type of seizure that I find myself in the ICU, I start yelling for no known reason. I have panic attacks for no reason. I say things that make no sense and I keep repeating myself. The hospital is glad when I am not in these conditions. I think that I have other illnesses that I do not have.

I cope by getting lots and lots of sleep. I do not try to sleep, my body has this natural way of coping.
 
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Ruth, take care of yourself! Keep in close touch with your doctor.
 
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My husband and son are my caregivers. They take very good care of me.

I have depression sometimes. I have a history of it. I do not have large depression. I think this is part of my status seizures. I have never really gotten over them. My last one I believe was in 1985, or thereabouts.
 
So, Bi-Polar Disorder is not a manifistation from abuse whereas TLE can be. While this is my humble reasoning, I've yet to come across an article addressing this disparity.

If anyone can shed some light or provide a link concerning this division it would be most appriciated. I've exhausted the access I have to research.

I was once asked by my epileptologist if there was any abuse in my childhood.

Here is an article that I have found on this subject:


Wounds That Time Won’t Heal
The Neurobiology of Child Abuse


By Martin H. Teicher

"We easily understand how beating a child may damage the developing brain, but what about the all-too-common psychological abuse of children? Because the abuse was not physical, these children may be told, as adults, that they should just “get over it.”

But as developmental neuropsychiatrist Martin H. Teicher reveals, scientists are discovering some startling connections between abuse of all kinds and both permanent debilitating changes in the brain and psychiatric problems ranging from panic attacks to posttraumatic stress disorder. In these surprising physical consequences of psychological trauma, Teicher sees not only a wake-up call for our society but hope for new treatments.

ABUSE AND THE DEVELOPING HUMAN BRAIN

For a century or more, scientists have hotly contested the relative importance of experience versus genetic endowment in the development of the brain and behavior. We know now that our genes provide the foundation and overall structure of our brain, but that its myriad connections are sculpted and molded by experience. Based on animal studies, scientists have long believed that early deprivation or abuse may result in neurobiological abnormalities, but until recently there has been little evidence for this in humans.

Observing parallel outcomes in animals and people has bolstered our belief that trauma causes brain damage, not the other way around.

Then, in 1983, A. H. Green and his colleagues suggested that many abused children evidenced neurological damage, even without an apparent or reported head injury. Interestingly, although minor neurological disturbances and mild brain-wave abnormalities were more common in children who had been abused than in those who had not, Green and his colleagues did not believe that the abuse had caused them. Instead, they saw these neurological disturbances as a possible additional source of trauma, amplifying the damaging impact of an abusive environment. In 1979, R. K. Davies reported that in a sample of 22 patients involved as a child or as the younger member in an incestuous relationship, 77 percent had abnormal brain waves and 36 percent had seizures. In Davies’s interpretation, however, these children were more vulnerable to being sexually abused by family members because of their neurological handicap.

My hypothesis is that the trauma of abuse induces a cascade of effects, including changes in hormones and neurotransmitters that mediate development of vulnerable brain regions. Testing this hypothesis in humans is difficult because abuse is not always a random act. If we observe an association between a history of abuse and the presence of a physical abnormality, the abuse may have caused that abnormality. But it is also possible that the abnormality occurred first and elevated the likelihood of abuse, or that the abnormality ran in the family and led to more frequent abusive behavior by family members or other relatives. To try to sort out these competing hypotheses, we conducted studies of analogous early stress in animals, where the potentially confusing elements can be carefully controlled. Observing parallel outcomes in animals and people has bolstered our belief that trauma causes brain damage, not the other way around.

A CONSTELLATION OF ABNORMALITIES

Our research (and that of other scientists) delineates a constellation of brain abnormalities associated with childhood abuse. There are four major components:

1)Limbic irritability, manifested by markedly increased prevalence of symptoms suggestive of temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) and by an increased incidence of clinically significant EEG (brain wave) abnormalities.

2)Deficient development and differentiation of the left hemisphere, manifested throughout the cerebral cortex and the hippocampus, which is involved in memory retrieval.

3)Deficient left-right hemisphere integration, indicated by marked shifts in hemispheric activity during memory recall and by underdevelopment of the middle portions of the corpus callosum, the primary pathway connecting the two hemispheres.

4)Abnormal activity in the cerebellar vermis (the middle strip between the two hemispheres of the brain), which appears to play an important role in emotional and attentional balance and regulates electrical activity within the limbic system.


Affects on the Hippocampus

The hippocampus, located in the temporal lobe, is involved in memory and emotion. Developing very gradually, the hippocampus is one of the few parts of the brain that continues to produce new cells after birth. Cells in the hippocampus have an unusually large number of receptors that respond to the stress hormone cortisol. Since animal studies show that exposure to high levels of stress hormones like cortisol has toxic effects on the developing hippocampus, this brain region may be adversely affected by severe stress in childhood.

J. Douglas Bremner and his colleagues at Yale Medical School compared magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans of 17 adult survivors of childhood physical or sexual abuse, all of whom had PTSD, with 17 healthy subjects matched for age, sex, race, handedness, years of education, body size, and years of alcohol abuse.8 The left hippocampus of abused patients with PTSD was 12 percent smaller than the hippocampus of the healthy controls, but the right hippocampus was of normal size, as were other brain regions, including the amygdala, caudate nucleus, and temporal lobe. Not surprisingly, given the role of the hippocampus in memory, these patients also had lower verbal memory scores than the nonabused group.

Murray Stein and his colleagues also found left hippocampal abnormalities in women who had been sexually abused as children. Their left hippocampal volume was significantly reduced, but the right hippocampus was relatively unaffected. Fifteen of the 21 sexually abused women had PTSD; 15 had a dissociative disorder. They suffered a reduction in the size of the left hippocampus proportionate to the severity of their symptoms.

These studies suggest that child abuse may alter development of the left hippocampus permanently and, in so doing, cause deficits in verbal memory and dissociative symptoms that persist into adulthood."



For more info, you can read the rest of the article @ The DANA Foundation http://www.dana.org/
Very insightful.
 
Cindy, thank you for providing the excerpt from this "excellent" article and the follow up link.

I say excellent because it so clearly defines to the lay person that the stunting of the left hippocampus can result in PTSD which is "most always" a precurser to severe dissociative disorders. My neurologist explained to me that the stunted left hippocampus could have been innate (as the article suggests) and, yes, then not developing in a healthy fashion due to sexual, emotional, psychological abuse. I'm glad Teicher brought attention to the fact that the left hippocampal stunting may have, in fact, little to do with head trauma, as could easily be assumed.

It was an eye opener for me reading that the "left hippocampus of abused patients with PTSD was 12% smaller than the hippocampus of the healthy controls." So, I'm quite off the charts. I'll be getting into your link to read some more.
Thanks, again.
 
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