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Could ADHD and Epliepsy be related?

Wed, 07/18/2007 - 11:57
I was just curious if anyone else's children have ADHD and seizures. My son who is now 12, was diagnosed with ADHD when he was in kindergarten. I know ADHD makes him forget things and have a memory problem, so I was wondering, could having seizures go along with this?

Comments

Classic epilepsy is one

Submitted by pgd on Wed, 2007-07-18 - 20:40
Classic epilepsy is one thing and classic ADHD is another. Classic epilepsy can respond to drugs for epilepsy which are different than drugs for ADHD. The epilepsy drugs tend to reduce seizures in those with classic epilepsy. The ADHD drugs (many of them - the central nervous system stimulants - alerting agents) tend to reduce ADHD, however, the ADHD drugs tend to lower the seizure threshold for some of those with epilepsy. There is a gray area between classic epilepsy and classic ADHD where sometimes it is very clear that a person responds to an epilepsy med but not an ADHD med or an ADHD med but not an epilepsy med. Are there some children and adults who can have both epilepsy and ADHD? Yes, for example, a child with known ADHD who, as he gets older, is involved in a car accident and then develops seizures as the result of a car accident head injury/brain injury. Then that child may very well have both ADHD and acquired epilepsy. Often (not always) epilepsy will show up on an EEG; ADHD does not show up on an EEG. It's a good question and a very real question you pose and one which is not that often discussed it seems to me. Often epilepsy is treated by a neurologist and ADHD by a psychiatrist and too often neither of the two fields of medicine really talk with one another due to business turf/business guild walls/whatever which can make the process of clarifying the question a little more difficult than ideally it can be. There also seems to be some evidence that the meds for epilepsy often do not really improve paying attention, concentration, and memory (there are exceptions) vs the ADHD drugs which tend to temporarily improve aspects of paying attention, concentration, and memory for some users. ADHD is sometimes (not always) viewed as either being close to some of the many epilepsies such as petit mal, absence, and so on or a neurological syndrome called Tourette's. Epilepsy is sometimes views (not always) as being epilepsy or not epilepsy. That's my understanding.

Re: Could ADHD and Epliepsy be related?

Submitted by pgd on Wed, 2007-07-18 - 21:01
(more) Regarding forgetting things, a memory problem, and epilepsy, it seems to me that the hippocampus of the brain (hippocampus to temporal lobe/whatever) may be involved and subtle seizures can impact how memory is laid down or not laid down at all. Regarding forgetting things, a memory problem, and ADHD, it seems to me that the hippocampus of the brain (hippocampus to temporal lobe/whatever) may be involved and subtle inattention can impact how memory is laid down or not laid down at all and, with ADHD, it is viewed to be perhaps a lack of neurotransmitters which central nervous system stimulants - alerting agents - such as caffeine, Ritalin, Dexedrine, Adderall, etc. can cause to be temporarily there resulting in temporary improvements for some persons. Caffeine and paying attention: http://www.rsna.org/rsna/media/pr2005/Coffee.cfm CAPD and paying attention: http://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/voice/auditory.asp

Re: Re: Could ADHD and Epliepsy be related?

Submitted by mjcolenc on Thu, 2007-07-19 - 08:46
Thanks for all the interesting reading.

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