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Drop seizure or something else?
Sat, 10/07/2006 - 18:01I have argued with my neurologist for years over this. He says you have to lose consciousness to have a seizure. I am having problems just "dropping" to the floor that got so bad I was falling 3-5 times a day. I have complex partial seizures already and I know when those are coming on. I get an aura as well with this as well.
I was told my falling was cataplexy that is related to Narcolepsy. However; a sleep study says that I don't. So..the arguement is whether or not my falling is a seizure or part of Narcolepsy.
I just started Lamictal for bipolar and currently am on dilantin. I was on depakote for several years but recently came off of it. I wonder if the dropping was masked/helped by the depakote and coming off of it made this type of seizure show up. As I have gotten into a higher dosage of Lamictal, my dropping has decreased to only a couple of times per week. It seems to me it's seizure related.
Does anyone else have drop seizures?
Thanks.
Comments
Re: Re: Drop seizure or something else?
Submitted by crashandburn on Sun, 2006-10-08 - 11:33
Lamictal is a wonder drug for my bipolar. I think it's messing with my dilantin levels as I keep having breakthrough seizures, but I'm probably not a dosage for helping seizures. It's obviously helping with my collapsing problem as I've stopped falling 3-5 times a day and just down to once or twice a week. I'm hoping as I go up in dosage it will help with the complex partial seizures
Long story short. I was born with a subdural hematoma which probably caused the seizures. I was diagnosed with epilepsy after having my first gran mal seizure at 22. I've had seizures all my life as a kid, but since they were complex partial, no one noticed. All I knew was that I had a sick feeling and then I was fine.
I've been on several meds over the years but the dilantin seemed to work the best. I was put on depakote after being diagnosed with bipolar. After seven years the side effects were just killing me and I switched to Abilify in June. I stopped taking the depakote which probably should have gone down gradually.
Come July I fell in my Pdoc office and he said it was cataplexy as I didn't lose consciousness. I've always fallen, but only once or twice a year. I then started falling to the floor 3-5 times a day for about a month. I can't even see a neurologist until the end of October in a few weeks even when I said I was falling with frequency.
I was taken off the Abilify to see if that was causing the problem. I still kept falling. I started taking Lamictal for the bipolar. When I got up to 50 mg, I stopped falling as much. Now at 150, I'm only doing it once or twice a week. I go up to 200 in a couple of weeks and I'm hoping to kill two birds with on med. I'd really like to get off the dilantin as the side effects are starting to really take their toll as well.
With an EEG and a sleep study coming back as normal, I'm in a limbo state now. My other problem is that I have these "blank out" moments which I started doing two years ago. Again, when I asked, I was told they weren't seizures. I just feel really stuck. I have an appt in a couple of weeks and I really hope we can work something out.
Re: Drop seizure or something else?
Submitted by Les on Sat, 2006-10-14 - 11:48
I have atonic drops. I most often do NOT lose consciousness and often am able to grab hold of something to prevent a fall since they are so blasted fast - about 1 or 2 seconds. The first one I ever had I was standing and the next thing I know I was on the floor on my butt. There were ample witnesses. This helped us pinpoint the duration being only a few seconds.
You can find out more info on other sites such as www.epilepsyfoundation.org and bring the info to your doc in order to prove the existence of atonics without loss of consciousness.
I am on Depakote ER and it worked quite well untill I began to have break through seizures. My neuro added sprinkles of 125mg for 2 weeks to a month and they calmed down alot.
As for those who may have been diagnosed with bi-polar, the meds for it can cause mania as well as depression and even psychosis. It is well known that E can cause depression and that AEDs can cause depression.
I was mis-diagnosed with bi-polar and the treatment caused not only bi-polar but also more seizures.I now google every med anyone wants to try on me.
One thing that caused a drop for me was thyroid hormone.My GP wanted me on it but never checked with my endocrinologist - I had way too much hormone in my system to be given hormones. Needless to say, I wound up firing the GP in the end.Les
Re: Drop seizure or something else?
Submitted by michelhead on Sat, 2006-10-07 - 21:47
Crashandburn, I cannot tell you if your dropping incidents are seizures or not. However, it would make sense. These types of seizures are called atonic seizures where you lose muscle tone. How is Lamictal working for you. It is also an AED that I have just started. BTW, you can find more information on atonic seizures on this website to see if this sounds like you. You may want to suggest a VEEG to see if these episodes are indeed seizure related. Good luck with your diagnosis.