Hi! Does anyone have any information/personal experience with psychogenic seizures. I just recently read a little about that, but I wanted to know more and am having problems finding out symptoms, treatment, etc. Also, Todd's syndrome. (everything I read about it, it is paralysis after a seizure, but our primary care doctor is stating it is paralysis, from migraines). It sounds like the psychogenic seizures are very hard to diagnose for epileptic seizures. My husband has a variety of seizures, including grand mal and I was trying to find more information on the psychogenic seizures. He has been only different medications for years, but nothing shows up on mris, eegs, etc. Thank-you and God Bless!

Hi Laura,
A psychogenic sz. is also known as a psuedo sz. meaning a person is faking the sz. Sometimes a person will do it when they are under a lot of emotional problems, and they also have this type of sz. around people to get attention.
Check out this web page for more info.

http://www.emedicine.com/neuro/index.shtml#seizures

Here's wishing you well and May God Bless You and Your Family!

Sue

You are referring to Todd's Paresis aka Todd's Paralysis
which follows after a seizure (usually a Tonic-clonic,
aka Grand Mal), and is a gradual recovery:

Todd's Paresis / Todd's Paralysis from Wiki

I suffer from this sporadically and it can be very scary.

NOW in regards to:

Pseudoseizures - is an old terminology, they now use
NES - Non-Epileptic Seizures and PNES - Physiologic
Nonepileptic Seizures

It falls into two categories:

1) Psychogenic - which is related to physical problems,
such as cardiac, diabetic, hypoglycemia, etc.

2) Physiologic - which is related to psychological factors,
such as trauma, abuse, emotional issues, etc.

Such seizures are not faked and they are not "crazy".
However under proper treatment and care they can
be controlled and maintained.

========================

There IS such thing as "FAKE SEIZURES" - to which
people use to gain attention by faking such and have
mental problems; hence why the old terminology is being
discontinued because of confusion. Instead they now
call this Non-Epileptic Attack Disorder - NEAD.


Hope all this information helps!

Hi Aunt Laura-

I, too, am a newbie to this forum, and am thrilled at the many subjects available for review, study, and comment.

My wife and I just brought our son home from University Hospital where he was studied in their Neuro Medicine unit regarding the seizures he has been suffering for nearly a year. Our particular young man was diagnosed with the insidious combination of schizophrenia and obsessive-compulsive disorder a number of years ago, and we have been medicating him since as prescribed while also submitting him to the rigors of much regular psychotherapy.

The seizures commenced. We had no idea what to do, and in panic contacted our son's primary physicians to determine what we might do. Sedation was the prescribed method of treatment once his seizures commenced. We worried. We fretted. We videotaped events he endured thinking pictures would indeed be worth much more than thousands of words ineffective to adequately describe our son's events.

During an event, his eyes would roll up in his head, his arms and legs would generally become fixed permitting at best a shuffling gait if he was on his feet, his head would thrash as if on a gimbel rotating through every axis imaginable, sometimes his arms and legs would thrash, and his utterances were reduced below the range of word vocalizations to mere guttural sounds. He would cry, and as he cried, his vocalizaitons would become a keening display of anguish, for this our brilliant young man was locked in an episode beyond his control and he seemingly knew it. What to do..... what to do.

We were referred to the hospital, one of only four in country credentialled for such neuro study. Our son was wired up with myriad elecytrodes to collect telemetry on all of his brain, cardiac, and respiratory function. Video monitoring was underway. All of this came together shortly after he began seizure and he continued thereafter for hours and hours on end, seemingly not to end. At last sedation was administered, and the seizure was arrested. So much data had been collected during those VERY long hours the doctors were both amazed and satisfied they had identified his situation.

Assurances were given to us that the seizure activity suffered by our son is VERY real and a by product of the stressors he encounters as he lives this so complicated mental illness profile, and yet we were told the seizures were non-epileptic, in fact, the seizures were Psychogenic Non-Epileptic Seizures as the doctors labelled them only a couple of days ago. His medications, both anti-psychotics and anti-depressants were not the cause. Our son was definitely not putting on. No, there is no medication to inhibit the manifestation of seizures, no preventative. Our son was assured the continuation of his psychotherapeutic sessions is paramount as a means to learn strategies to attempt control of the seizure producing stressors. Bear in mind, stressors for him may be something as seemingly simple as the fact of a piece of lint being on someone's sleeve, the position of a light switch whether on or off, the selection of a meal item on a menu. All things and any thing may be a stressor.

We have quite a road ahead of us as a close knit family working to help our son through this complicated life he has been dealt and we are especially grateful for those of the medical community and our cadre of family and friends who gather close to help our son and help us strive to be helpful to him. Also, I was very grateful to "luck" upon this website and the forum structure it represents as an aid to these issues.

May you find hope, and peace, and the means to help and be helped in your situation.
God bless you all,
Mark56

Mark,
We too underwent a rough time getting diagnosed with NES (nonepileptic seizures). Fortunately, more people understand better than the above person who says it's faking. They have no idea how much harm that causes. The real cases of fake is rare. My daughter was almost overdosed twice with meds to stop her NES. Because it doesn't show on the EEG or MRI - it's tougher for medical people to understand. Psychologists can't deal very well with all the medical implications - so it's a catch 22. We also live in Colorado. She was diagnosed at Swedish, they gave the NES diag. and said "seeking counseling" meanwhile it was multiple trips to the ER and a nightmare. The medical/psychological world is very unprepared to deal with this. Many did try, but ultimately it was us as parents who had to research and keep looking for answeres.
She did not have as severe psychological issues as your son, but it was still very complicated.
I encourage you to search under gluten allergy, seizures, wheat allergy seizures. I stumbled upon this last September and she has not had one seizure since. She's had some exposure and it has caused muscle tremors. I recent found an article about gluten and mental illness. It addressed many of her symptoms. Google drkaslow and look under gluten brain connection. I am too new on the site to give a link. It took us 3 years to see some improvement, I hope yours is much sooner!

Hang in there and keep looking. You are your son's best advocate!

Are you sure these are not backward? I think the definition of #1 goes with #2 and vice versa. Tattoo

1) Psychogenic - which is related to physical problems,
such as cardiac, diabetic, hypoglycemia, etc.

2) Physiologic - which is related to psychological factors,
such as trauma, abuse, emotional issues, etc.

Such seizures are not faked and they are not "crazy".
However under proper treatment and care they can
be controlled and maintained.

Hi Mark,
Welcome to the forum! I've had epilepsy for 38 yrs. I began at the age of 10 yrs. old and I started to have seizures on the right temporal lobe. I would have absence (petit mal) seizures and then 2 yrs. later I started to have complex partial seizures. The neuro couldn't figure out what was causing my seizures and I would often cry for no reason and they thought I was faking the seizures at first. All this happened back in the early 1970's before they had video e.e.g.'s It wasn't until they did a veeg that they found I had lesions on the right temporal lobe of my brain which was triggering seizures and it would make me cry, lose my temper, and be very emotional. After seeing a neuropsychologist, Epileptologist and neurosurgeon to have brain surgery I found out that many people with Right temporal lobe epilepsy can become very emotional. After I had brain surgery done to help reduce my seizures in 1994 things went so much better for me and they found brain damage on both the right and left temporal lobe that can cause the problems your son has had.
You mentioned that light bothered your son this means your son could be photosensitive meaning certain color lights could trigger a seizure. I had a special type of e.e.g. done where they would flash different color strobe lights one at a time and they found that florscent green, amber and bright white were the colors that would trigger seizures for me. Depression is all part of epilepsy and often people feel suicidial do to their epilepsy medications they take. I've found taking vitamin B12 one of the best things to reduce the seizures. Also tell your son to stay away from anything with nutra sweet in it like diet soda and stay away from cell phones. Both nutra sweet and cell phones cause to much electrical activity in the brain and it can trigger seizures. cell phones also can cause brain tumors and shrink the hippocampus (memory) of the brain causing short term memory loss.
I wish you and your son only the best of luck. May God Bless You and Your Family!

Sue

izophreniaPLEASE! check into the potential conection with celiac disease/nonceliac gluten sensitivity...check out pubmed for the articles conecting guten and schizophrenia.....with your situation being so very serious...please check this out!

Thank you all for responses and replies once I wrote regarding our son. After the video/telemetry study at the University Hospital and we learned his seizures were psychogenic non epileptic, we next quizzed his doctors regarding a possible change up on his medications. In fact, he was keenly interested himself. After all, he is the individual living this illness picture from the inside.

Thus, we engaged with Doctor's consent and participation in a titrative migration from the set of meds then being used to control psychosis to another med. Interestingly, his seizures are seeming to abate and some emotive display has been restored, a better life than the flatness he was displaying.

Maybe, maybe we are on a right path.
All for now,
Mark56

Hi Mark,
I'm glad to hear that you were able to get some help for your son and I feel you played it smart questioning the neuro. To find out what meds would be the best for your son tell the Neuro to do a DNA test on your son. By doing the DNA test they can find what meds will help your son the most with the least side effects. I will let you know that the Dr. might say we don't do DNA testing but take my word they are just saying that because they want to make extra money for themselves by putting your son on more meds. DNA testing has been out for at least 2 yrs. if not longer.
I wish you and your family only the best and May God Bless All of You!

Sue