to seize or not to seize

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!

julie wishes

julie wishes

New
Messages
649
Reaction score
0
Points
0
I thought that was the question.... but I'm finding out I was wrong.

Epileptic seizures = Epilepsy = pos EEG

Non-Epileptic (physiological and psychogenic) = ???? = neg EEG

They are treated the same??? Or people are weaned off meds if Non-E?????

Pardon me for my inability to digest the massive amounts of info related to epilepsy and seizures. But can someone shed some light for me? I so desperately want to understand so when I see my doctor I can explain it to her... LOL. Seriously though, I really do want to understand.

Being a labor and delivery RN has tainted me. You're either pregnant or you're not. And I know exactly what to do if you're pregnant, but can't for the life of me figure this E stuff out. Probably due to my concussion and subsequent mind boggle with plenty of E's or Non-E's to go around.

I am asking for one reason. If I find out I'm having NON-E's will I be medicated? My EEG
was positive for generalized seizure disorder. But my ambulatory EEG was negative (however I had my worst feeling seizure during the ambulatory one) ???? So assuming its non e.

Can I safely live with no meds in this condition? Driving and whatnot. From what I've journaled... it seems I have several or more simple seizures a day. They are awful and slow me down. But I hate the meds. No t/cs or complexes. Maybe absence?

Cocktails please.... I don't even drink, but I'm thinking about it now... just kidding :)
:giveup: :hello:
 
I think most people with E have both E seizures and non-E seizures.
It depends on how you react to the meds, really. If they help stop the non-E seizures than there's no reason to take away medication, because it's working.
EEG's aren't exactly 100% accurate either, so there's always that to take into consideration as well.

I'll still say you shouldn't drive unless your doctors approve of it.
 
It's probably easier to think of E as a diagnosis via symptoms rather than a disease.
The symptoms, seizures, abnormal electrical activity in the nervous system, etc. Those are all signs of the presence of E.

However, the cause is unknown. If we knew what caused E exactly, we'd have developed much more accurate and useful treatment options by now. Since the cause seems to be unknown, and triggers and symptoms are different for everyone, there's no one-shot solution for every person.

Like, Huntington's disease for example, is caused by a repeat in a specific gene over 40 times, which causes all the problems. They can do a gene panel, and if the repetitions are present, they can diagnose Huntington's every single time.
E is the exact opposite. Every person is different and people respond to things differently so really it's a diagnosis and treatment process based on controlling symptoms... which is kinda bad, but it's better than being left to your own devices until medical science has advanced enough to find a root cause.
 
Oops, meant to put that in he kitchen. Can it be moved?
Click to expand...
Done!

I'm not sure that most people have both kinds of seizures -- I think the current estimation is that between 10-30% of patients with PNES also have epilepsy. But I also think that non-epileptic seizures aren't well-understood, and may be over-diagnosed as well. Neurologists are very quick to label something as "non-epileptic" if there's a negative EEG -- even though the EEG is not a perfect tool and can miss many kinds of abnormal activity. And certain kinds of seizures (such as frontal lobe ones) are very difficult to distinguish from non-epileptic ones.

In terms of treatment, many of the drugs used are the same (which goes to show how powerful these meds are and how wide-ranging their effects and side effects can be). But with PNES, CBT can also play a role, whereas it can't with epileptic seizures.
 
Silat said:
I think most people with E have both E seizures and non-E seizures.
Click to expand...

I've always had E seizures, and as Nak said, non E seizures are probably over diagnosed because Epilepsy is still one of the most misunderstood and hard to diagnose conditions.

It wasn't until 1990 that they declared it "The Decade of the Brain", devoting more research to brain disorders and they are still learning.
 
I agree with Nak to a point. I do think that if someone is diagnosed with E during their childhood years, that if they were to have non-E seizures as well, it would be very hard to tell the difference. I think its the initial diagnosing stage where people tend to get over diagnosed as stressed out, axiety, depression induced seizures (non-E)
 
If you have any sort of positive eeg result you will be medicated I believe.
Ambulatory eegs are geared to catch seizures on the go but it's not a perfect method because they cannot see what is going on and some the connections can be pulled out in your sleep and there are more things they cannot control during an ambulatory.
That's my understanding anyways.
 
Thank you guys, this is just the kind of info I've been searching for. You all have been very helpful. I really appreciate it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom