Community Forum Archive

The Epilepsy Community Forums are closed, and the information is archived. The content in this section may not be current or apply to all situations. In addition, forum questions and responses include information and content that has been generated by epilepsy community members. This content is not moderated. The information on these pages should not be substituted for medical advice from a healthcare provider. Experiences with epilepsy can vary greatly on an individual basis. Please contact your doctor or medical team if you have any questions about your situation. For more information, learn about epilepsy or visit our resources section.

Simple Partial Seizures v. BiPolar Disorder

Wed, 01/05/2005 - 09:13
This may sound strange, but I really need the input. My Nephew was recently diagnosed with BiPolar Disorder. The "Diagnosis" from what I understand was made simply from descriptions of his behavior. No types of tests. I'm concerned since there is a family history of Epilepsy and since his behavior could also be fit into the classification of Simple Partial Seizures -"Psychic seizures". Has anyone heard of or experienced one of these conditions being mis-diagnosed as the other? My sister will only investigate the possibility if I can show her that it has happened to someone else. I don't want to see my nephew suffer for hi mother's stubbornness. Or, am I totally off base? If I'm wrong I'll be glad to know that too.

Comments

RE: RE: Simple Partial Seizures v. BiPolar Disorder

Submitted by Yakota on Sat, 2005-04-16 - 13:41
Hi Valdrum. It is very common for the symptoms of epilepsy to be misdiagnosed for some type of psychological disorder. It seems that many physicians are too quick to slam dunk a psychiatric diagnoses on symptoms associated with seizure. It is a sad thing to aquire such psychiatric lables under false pretenses. They are hard to loose. Unfortunayely this is what happened to me. For seven years I was treated with psychiatric and anti-depressant drugs which induced psychosis in me. The neurologist I went to said that it was not seizure that I was having and sent me to a psychiatist. The neurologist refused to run an eeg; had he done so he would have found the problem to be medical and not psychological. I strongly suggest an eeg to rule out the possibility of epilepsy on any human before a psychiatric diagnoses is given Seizure does cause bizzare behavior. But the anti-depressant and psychiatric drugs that I took caused far more bizzare behavior that any seizure that I have experienced. Back in Febuary of 2003 I saw a new psychiatrist. I owe her big time!!! She said that I needed to stay away from SSRI's (anti-psychotics,) and TRICYCLINES(anti-depressants,) because I was a seizure patient. These drugs lower the threshold for seizure. When you give them to a seizure patient they will have more seizure. After seven years of taking SSRIs and TRICYCLINES I was having lots of grandmal seizure. At the beginning of the sixth year of tratment I was on poly-therapy trying different combinations of three AEDs at a time. Nothing would stop the ever increasing grandmal seizure. In March of 2003 a month after I found out the SSRIs and TRICYCLINES were causing me to have grandmal seizure I received the vns. I tried this as a last resort to stop the seizure. By the end of March 2003 I was off all of SSRIs and TRICYLINES. Seizure stopped abruptly on April 02, 2003. Nine months ago I stopped taking AEDs. In October of 2004 the vns was turnd off. I still have abnormal eegs. It looks like status epilepticus on paper. But I don't have a physical convulsion. While all this is going on I experience blurred vision, a tingling sensation of the tongue, and a feeling like I am falling down. I take lots of "B" vitamins, amino acids, and suppliments. What happened to me totally interrupted my life. I am greatful to have come out of the ordeal with my mind intact. It is to soon to tell what the "status epilepticus" showing up on the eegs is caused from. It could be fromm taking all the high doses of SSRIs and TRICYCLINES. The drug manufactures don't test these drugs on people who don't have psychological problems. For everyday that I don't experence seizure I consider myself blessed. I hope you find this information useful. Yakota.

RE: Simple Partial Seizures v. BiPolar Disorder

Submitted by Yakota on Fri, 2005-04-15 - 19:54
Hi usmale. Yes. I encourage you to seek several opinions before you treat your son for a bi-polar disorder diagnosis. People are misdiagnosed with psychological disorders all the time when in fact it is seizure. Even the pharmacutical manufactures stress this to physicians on the drug staff sheets to make sure that what physicians are diagnosing as withdrawal syndrome is not actually a small complex partial seizure. I was misdiagnosed back in 1996. At the time I was having spells, small complex partial seizure. I saw a neurologist who refused to run an egg and sent me to a psychiatrist. The neurologist said that it was a psychological problem, not a nuerological one. It was the the one time in my life that I should have sought a second oppion! To make the story short I was misdiagnosed with a psychological disorder when in fact it was complex partial seizure that I had. Over the next seven years my family and I went through a really bad time and that is putting nicely!!! The drugs they use to treat depression and psychological disturances lower the threshold for seizure meaning that if you give TRICYCLINES Anti-depressans and SSRIs Anti-psychotics to a seizure patient they will have more seizure. That is what happened to me. And since it was a neurological problem and not a psychological one the drugs that were prescribed me for depression and psychological disturbances actually induced me into a state of mental psychosis that lasted for seven years. Taking so many SSRIs and TRICYCLINES caused me to suffer much from seizure. In March of 2003 I received the vns for epilepsy. At the time I was on a combination of three different seizure drugs. But because my CNS (central nervous system) was loaded with SSRIs and TRICYCLINES the seizure drugs were not were not able to control seizure. I had the vns turned off in October of 2004. It has been over 2 years since I stopped taking the drugs that were prescribed me for a wrong psychological diagnosis. What happen turned my life upside down. I picked up some rather unhealthy lables during that seven year period. Please rule out all possibilities of seizure before you accept a psychological misdiagnosis. I hope this is helpful for you. Yakota.

Simple Partial Seizures v. BiPolar Disorder

Submitted by bolg on Wed, 2008-01-16 - 11:56

Hi usmale, You did well to see the possible connection here. Our 15 year old son has been having a horrible past 12 weeks, first being diagnosed with severe, sudden onset, depression, and then, due to his reaction to the antidepressant, being considered possibly bipolar. He was put on Wellbutrin, which induced a manic episode, brought on major anxiety (in a kid who has always been incredibly laid back) and severe hallucinations and visual/perceptual distortions ( walls moving in and out). We have history of bipolar in my family (my brother), but my son's symptoms were worse in the context of depression, suicidal thoughts, and hallucinations, than my brother ever had. Also he was still taking care of himself, and he still wanted to see his friends, and do the things he liked, his lack of ability to concentrate was what was getting in the way. Through this ordeal, he was hospitalized twice and we just didn't feel that the psychiatrists we were working with were getting it right. This was a kid who was having a great year, had a great group of friends he saw regularly, was doing really well in school and liked his teachers, and participating in after school activities and sports. This change for him seemed to come out of the blue - but the more we thought about it, it seemed to follow up a period where he had been working out in two sports (swimming and running), getting less sleep (due to the sports and school work) and eating less (eating later so wasn't as hungry).

Also, after the depression started, whenever he did a little more intense of a workout (beyond walking), he would feel more out of it and more depressed (exercise usually helps depression!). Anyways, we kept on saying that he may have an element of bipolar, since it is in the family, but he only had 4 of the 15 markers that often suggested bipolar - so we thought there was something else going on. On top of that, he hadn't responded well to the prozac and wellbutrin, and wasn't responding as well to the lithium as they expected. In the meantime, this kid was going to therapy and trying everything they told him to make things better (he was making sure he got to bed at the same time, very careful to eat healthy meals, engage with us for a walk or to play a game, or get involved in an acitivity he could handle if he felt a slide coming on). He was dying to get back to his normal life. We were a far cry from that - he had been a kid who would read a book a weekend, was in honors classes, and now, couldn't even read a paragraph without the page moving or starting to feel depressed.

 We finally heard about this residential program that does well with med stabilization and we decided to try that since we felt that no one we had access to was listening or getting it. We were so lucky because the psychiatrist we got at this program is amazing. She listened to everything we said and asked amazing question. She was the one to mention that she thought he had a possible seizure disorder, and it started to make sense in so many ways. Wellbutrin can induce seizures, especially if some one is already having petimal seizures. Also it explained his saying, he would all of a sudden lose track of where he was, and what he was doing for a 20-30 seconds and come back and then know what was going on, and why intense exercise could make it worse. We have an MRI scheduled for tomorrow and an EEG for Friday, plus she is trying to get us in with a pediatric neurologist. We know that he may still have a bipolar component, but we have always felt it was only part of the picture, not the major picture. Encourage your sister to get a second opinion and to keep a journal. I kept a journal, only to stay sane, because you can feel like every day, all day is bad. With a journal, you start to see patterns and if you get a good psychiatrist, they can make sense of the patterns. It is hard to have our son away for these 3-4 weeks, but we are so glad to have someone who really listens and is helping us solve this puzzle. I feel for Yakota, it must have been such a long 7 years, and it's so frustrating when you don't feel like they listen. Thank God you are alive and can help other people not go through this nightmare. Best of luck usmale - you could be saving your nephew years of misery.

Hi usmale, You did well to see the possible connection here. Our 15 year old son has been having a horrible past 12 weeks, first being diagnosed with severe, sudden onset, depression, and then, due to his reaction to the antidepressant, being considered possibly bipolar. He was put on Wellbutrin, which induced a manic episode, brought on major anxiety (in a kid who has always been incredibly laid back) and severe hallucinations and visual/perceptual distortions ( walls moving in and out). We have history of bipolar in my family (my brother), but my son's symptoms were worse in the context of depression, suicidal thoughts, and hallucinations, than my brother ever had. Also he was still taking care of himself, and he still wanted to see his friends, and do the things he liked, his lack of ability to concentrate was what was getting in the way. Through this ordeal, he was hospitalized twice and we just didn't feel that the psychiatrists we were working with were getting it right. This was a kid who was having a great year, had a great group of friends he saw regularly, was doing really well in school and liked his teachers, and participating in after school activities and sports. This change for him seemed to come out of the blue - but the more we thought about it, it seemed to follow up a period where he had been working out in two sports (swimming and running), getting less sleep (due to the sports and school work) and eating less (eating later so wasn't as hungry).

Also, after the depression started, whenever he did a little more intense of a workout (beyond walking), he would feel more out of it and more depressed (exercise usually helps depression!). Anyways, we kept on saying that he may have an element of bipolar, since it is in the family, but he only had 4 of the 15 markers that often suggested bipolar - so we thought there was something else going on. On top of that, he hadn't responded well to the prozac and wellbutrin, and wasn't responding as well to the lithium as they expected. In the meantime, this kid was going to therapy and trying everything they told him to make things better (he was making sure he got to bed at the same time, very careful to eat healthy meals, engage with us for a walk or to play a game, or get involved in an acitivity he could handle if he felt a slide coming on). He was dying to get back to his normal life. We were a far cry from that - he had been a kid who would read a book a weekend, was in honors classes, and now, couldn't even read a paragraph without the page moving or starting to feel depressed.

 We finally heard about this residential program that does well with med stabilization and we decided to try that since we felt that no one we had access to was listening or getting it. We were so lucky because the psychiatrist we got at this program is amazing. She listened to everything we said and asked amazing question. She was the one to mention that she thought he had a possible seizure disorder, and it started to make sense in so many ways. Wellbutrin can induce seizures, especially if some one is already having petimal seizures. Also it explained his saying, he would all of a sudden lose track of where he was, and what he was doing for a 20-30 seconds and come back and then know what was going on, and why intense exercise could make it worse. We have an MRI scheduled for tomorrow and an EEG for Friday, plus she is trying to get us in with a pediatric neurologist. We know that he may still have a bipolar component, but we have always felt it was only part of the picture, not the major picture. Encourage your sister to get a second opinion and to keep a journal. I kept a journal, only to stay sane, because you can feel like every day, all day is bad. With a journal, you start to see patterns and if you get a good psychiatrist, they can make sense of the patterns. It is hard to have our son away for these 3-4 weeks, but we are so glad to have someone who really listens and is helping us solve this puzzle. I feel for Yakota, it must have been such a long 7 years, and it's so frustrating when you don't feel like they listen. Thank God you are alive and can help other people not go through this nightmare. Best of luck usmale - you could be saving your nephew years of misery.

Sign Up for Emails

Stay up to date with the latest epilepsy news, stories from the community, and more.