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Psychogenic AND Epileptic. Anyone else have this too?

Wed, 05/25/2011 - 18:04

So I'm in the hospital today, (was yesterday too) for VEEG testing.

I had a two "attacks" yesterday that included sudden numbness in face neck and arms, sudden tension to the point where my hands were bent in funny ways, loss of mobility in arms, jerking/muscle spasms, emotional, with clouded awareness and some loss of memory. Believe it or not, these attacks were shown to be psychogenic according to my EEG. They also say that based on previous EEGs I still have confirmed epileptic seizures. So what I know right now, and what we are looking at, is that I have both epileptic AND PNES. I have been prescribed Lamictal for my epileptic spells.

Gonna be in the hospital another day or so.

Anybody else deal with both epileptic and psychogenic seizures? It would be nice to hear about some individuals that have the issue of detrmining spells caused by unconscious mood stressors vs spells caused by epilepsy. How do you cope? What triggers have you found? Have you found a difference between the two?

AJ

Comments

Re: Psychogenic AND Epileptic. Anyone else have this too?

Submitted by pgd on Thu, 2011-05-26 - 13:32
You might look up the hemiparesis article at Wikipedia. Also, you might take a look at: http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/Tartrazine_and_ADHD/ (Modern nutrition). Possible insights here and there (no cures).

Re: Psychogenic AND Epileptic. Anyone else have this too?

Submitted by 3Hours2Live on Fri, 2011-05-27 - 05:22
Hi Allina, I considered the possibility of "Psychogenic Epileptic Seizures" in statistical correlations, with the assumption of "causal" by the sharpness of distinction in the flow of time (i.e., did the psychological element "cause" the chemical/organic emotional event and come before the neurological event, or vice-versa for both elements (or no significant correlations at all?)). "Psychogenic epileptic seizures are those which arise as a consequence of mental activity. Primary psychogenic epileptic seizures are produced by a deliberate mental attempt to induce a seizure." And, "Secondary psychogenic epileptic seizures (also called the 'thinking epilepsies') are those which occur when the subject is thinking, calculating, or 'feeling', but not trying to induce a seizure." (6-12). From "Behavioural treatment of epilepsy" by Peter B.C. Fenwick, (Postgrad Med J (1990) 66, 336- 338) ( http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2426831/pdf/postmedj00161-0007.pdf ) . With the added weight of the "Fake Bad Scale" (FBS) lawsuits involving brain damage as being the "deliberate" (whether conscious or unconscious) cause of the "Faking Bad" and used as a weapon by neuropsychologists seeking material gain, ( http://richmond.injuryboard.com/head-and-brain-injuries/fake-bad-scale-weapon-of-defense-neuropsychologists.aspx?googleid=232632 ) I had already tried to retain the "Beyond Freedom & Dignity" stance of radical behaviourism. (versus Psychogenic Non-Epileptic Seizures (PNES) at http://www.cnbc.pt/jpmatos/05.%20Johnson.pdf esp. pages 7, 9). Using strong aversive conditioning (much like the fictional "Ludovico Technique"), I tried to condition an otherwise neutral stimulus into a Pavlovian "trigger" of visceral events. It never reached levels of Temporal Lobe Epilepsy ictal events, but the clue that ictal events are very strong reinforcers themselves became readily apparent, leading to many chance reinforced behaviours (conditioned "superstitious behaviours" by Skinnerian Behaviourism terminology, (often from just one event)) in addition to any easily rationalized or rational behaviours. Books like "Gates and Rowan's Nonepileptic Seizures" by Schachter and LaFrance (2010), almost totally ignore the direct effects of seizures as directly conditioning behaviours, and instead, tend to give any attention to only indirect conditioning involving social interactions, while needlessly catergorizing the more "superstitious behaviours" as Mental Disorders (an extreme example would be calling "Mentally ill" a person (experiencing a warning of an impending tonic-clonic seizure), seeking an open area away from dangerous objects, while prostrating, and chanting repetitiously in an otherwise maybe futile attempt to preclude a seizure, that by chance didn't more fully materialize). As in the articles I cited in the forum "What Part of Your Epilepsy Do You Hate Most?", the majority of simple and complex partial seizures are not frequently detected by surface electrodes of a VEEG, and any assumption that partial seizures are easily detected by a VEEG using surface electrodes is an abuse of the information derived from a VEEG. Major number calculation mistakes are also made from the assumption of "cause" being confused with the results of conditional probabilities with manipulated environments. Many emitted unusual behaviours from individuals, who have been conditioned to avoid seizures by such behaviours, work at precluding seizures. So definitely, no abnormal "seizure EEG" events are then detectable, while the individual experienced correlates of seizures, seizures which would have otherwise have a high chance of materializing. By the PNES philosophy, such success by the individual constitutes a Mental Disorder. Tadzio

Re: Psychogenic AND Epileptic. Anyone else have this too?

Submitted by tbaldwin on Sun, 2011-07-24 - 21:48
Kids always refer to nuts as crazy or epileptic, after they're told that you're epileptic and have seizures. They have have no idea of what a seizure is so they think you'll go crazy and be a nut. It's probably related to both words ending the same so they think their the same. Timothy Baldwin

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