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Cluster Seizures

Mon, 02/21/2011 - 17:24

For the last 10 years my (undiaganosed) seizures have occurred only 4-6 times a year but when they do, I get a cluster of at least a dozen and more over the course of a 24hour period.

I saw a neuro for the first time last month (Jan/11) because I didn’t realize that I might be having seizures until I did a little Googling last summer (2010). I’m assuming they are simple partial seizures since I remain conscious and aware.

My neuro said that my description (see pkimmer story) was that of seizures but I forgot to ask what kind. I’m seeing her in a week (28Feb’11) to get her assessment now that MRI has come back normal like all of my other tests. Until then, can anyone shed some light on the SEIZURE CLUSTER aspect? The only thing I’ve found in my research pertains to tonic clonic or seizures complex partial seizures where consciousness is lost. Even then, they talk about a lot fewer seizures within a 24 hour time frame so I’m quite confused about it...ANYBODY??? Thanks for listening :  ) pkimmer



Comments

Re: Cluster Seizures

Submitted by tcameron on Wed, 2011-02-23 - 17:23

Hi,

That's interesting about Ativan and anxiety.  Yes, anxiety can induce seizures for me.   Several other in my epilepsy support group take Ativan to combat clusters.  Did you know that A LOT of AED's are also used for anxiety and bipolar disorders?  It's been determined that these conditions are neurological, and are often located in or near the same part of the brain.  Stress would be a more accurate definition for the trigger, but anxiety causes stress! 

I only take the Ativan (lorazepam) after my first seizure.  If taken too often, it loses its effectiveness. 

I find a fever, even as low as 99* (stress), too much exercise at the gym (stress),  and of course, missing any pills are definite triggers.  It's difficult to keep track of all those pills!  I take 4 different AEDs every day.  Most of my seizures have no known cause. 

BTW, most of us can't find any triggers for our seizures.

I hope this helps!

T. Cameron

 

Hi,

That's interesting about Ativan and anxiety.  Yes, anxiety can induce seizures for me.   Several other in my epilepsy support group take Ativan to combat clusters.  Did you know that A LOT of AED's are also used for anxiety and bipolar disorders?  It's been determined that these conditions are neurological, and are often located in or near the same part of the brain.  Stress would be a more accurate definition for the trigger, but anxiety causes stress! 

I only take the Ativan (lorazepam) after my first seizure.  If taken too often, it loses its effectiveness. 

I find a fever, even as low as 99* (stress), too much exercise at the gym (stress),  and of course, missing any pills are definite triggers.  It's difficult to keep track of all those pills!  I take 4 different AEDs every day.  Most of my seizures have no known cause. 

BTW, most of us can't find any triggers for our seizures.

I hope this helps!

T. Cameron

 

Re: Cluster Seizures

Submitted by tcameron on Wed, 2011-02-23 - 17:23

Hi,

That's interesting about Ativan and anxiety.  Yes, anxiety can induce seizures for me.   Several other in my epilepsy support group take Ativan to combat clusters.  Did you know that A LOT of AED's are also used for anxiety and bipolar disorders?  It's been determined that these conditions are neurological, and are often located in or near the same part of the brain.  Stress would be a more accurate definition for the trigger, but anxiety causes stress! 

I only take the Ativan (lorazepam) after my first seizure.  If taken too often, it loses its effectiveness. 

I find a fever, even as low as 99* (stress), too much exercise at the gym (stress),  and of course, missing any pills are definite triggers.  It's difficult to keep track of all those pills!  I take 4 different AEDs every day.  Most of my seizures have no known cause. 

BTW, most of us can't find any triggers for our seizures.

I hope this helps!

T. Cameron

 

Hi,

That's interesting about Ativan and anxiety.  Yes, anxiety can induce seizures for me.   Several other in my epilepsy support group take Ativan to combat clusters.  Did you know that A LOT of AED's are also used for anxiety and bipolar disorders?  It's been determined that these conditions are neurological, and are often located in or near the same part of the brain.  Stress would be a more accurate definition for the trigger, but anxiety causes stress! 

I only take the Ativan (lorazepam) after my first seizure.  If taken too often, it loses its effectiveness. 

I find a fever, even as low as 99* (stress), too much exercise at the gym (stress),  and of course, missing any pills are definite triggers.  It's difficult to keep track of all those pills!  I take 4 different AEDs every day.  Most of my seizures have no known cause. 

BTW, most of us can't find any triggers for our seizures.

I hope this helps!

T. Cameron

 

Re: Cluster Seizures

Submitted by 3Hours2Live on Tue, 2011-02-22 - 06:48
Hi PKimmer, I've had clusters of seizures from Temporal Lobe Epilepsy (TLE) all my life (58 years). For the first two or three decades, the clusters were mainly of stronger simple partial seizures. The clusters were mainly unpleasant visceral sensations of partial seizures (epigastric rising sensations, severe flashes of sensations of intense fear, etc.). The clusters usually came with a warning aura just as I would try to go to sleep the night before they would hit the hardest at the highest frequency per hour the following early morning, through the next day or so. My clusters have a period of returning in a little less than a month (not in sync with the moon, but more like my biological day is closer to 25 hours long than 24 hours long). The severity of the seizures in the clusters grew more intense over the decades, where they frequently peaked with secondarily generalized tonic-clonics during my fourth decade of life. Various theories I've read that made the most sense to me, involved the notion of seizure kindling and seizure thresholds, with the model of occurrences of minor seizures briefly lowering the seizure threshold, until frequent and larger seizures raise the seizure threshold, stopping the cluster, with long term kindling raising the frequency/intensity of the cusp point over the decades. At the height of the fad of the mathematical dynamic systems of "Catastrophe Theory", it was often applied to epilepsy, with the simplest model of the Cusp Catastrophe, to more difficult models of the Butterfly Catastrophes, with a simplified limited model for periods of "Acute Repetitive Simple Partial Seizures" somewhere between Partial Status Epilepticus and Clusters of Simple Partial Seizures, determined by the cusp flip-flop of the threshold in a particular closely grouped bunch of seizures, in the dimensions of frequency and intensity of the group plotted against threshold level. Some of the terminology for seizure clusters: http://books.google.com/books?id=UbRh4TkyK3QC&pg=PA717&lpg=PA717&dq=epilepsy+acute+repetitive+simple+partial+seizures&source=bl&ots=IOFfUH270j&sig=iXx_fM6WYZNcoKO_Uo0NukYaAik&hl=en&ei=LIdjTePFFY6CsQPO4t2_CA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CDMQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=acute%20repetitive%20simple%20partial%20seizures&f=false For the last 23 months, I've managed to stop my clusters from reaching tonic-clonics with a strong dose of regular Keppra, but I haven't any luck with AEDs stopping the partial seizures, in clusters, or otherwise. A somewhat barbaric theory making a comeback, is briefly "stopping" epilepsy by raising the seizure threshold with Electro-Convulsive Therapy (ECT), while ECT has also been regarded as being another cause of epilepsy. Tadzio

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