Epilepsy?? Or Schizophrenia??

Re: Epilepsy?? Or Schizophrenia??

Submitted by 3Hours2Live on Mon, 2009-11-30 - 03:06

Hi mainwah04259, There are a large number of neurological impairments that have the symptoms of "hearing voices and seeing things as well as the strange smells." The neurological impairments catergorized as epilepsy involve neurological seizures resulting from an abnormal and excessive discharge of a set of neurones in the brain. These seizures are best objectively validated by eeg recordings during the events, but this frequently is not practical, and rules-of-thumb are often used as guidelines before a more well-founded diagnosis is reached. My experiences have been mainly with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) and migraines, and university studies in psychology/Mental-Health assessments using the MMPI at clinics. The first rule-of-thumb I use between epilepsy and migraines is length of time of the symptom: if it is less than 5 minutes, call it a seizure, if it is longer than 5 minutes, call it a migraine. Strangely enough, this is the rule with all direct manifestations during a possible seizure versus longer period impairments. (With confusions over status epilepticus). The time periods just before seizures, just after seizures, and in between seizures also frequently include transient abnormalities of the central nervous system (these abnormalities are also differeniated from other impairments by length of time of signs and symptoms, or the length of a cycle of signs and symptoms). Generally, epilepsy has repeated (at least more than two) cycles of occurrences of seizures and related time periods. An aura of "strange smells" are common symptoms of subjective seizure phenomena involving the amygdala and/or hippocampus that, in a given patient, may precede an observable seizure; if alone it constitutes a sensory seizure. "Hearing voices" is a moderately common symptom during a seizure, especially seizures involving the lateral temporal lobes. "Seeing things" usually involves the occipital lobes. Elementary visual hallucinations do not originate in the temporal lobes in TLE, but may be secondary seizure "spread" to the occipital lobes. "Complex visual hallucinations originate from the occipito-parietal-temporal junction and therefore may be part of any seizure that starts from or spreads to this area." My migraines frequently involve elementary visual illusions/ hallucinations. The short period of hallucinations during a seizure easily differentiates the hallucinations from the symptoms of schizophrenia. Longer instances of possible hallucinations during the time periods associated around epileptic seizures are more difficult to distinguish from easily imitating psychological impairments, but distinct psych impairments usually are identified with much longer time periods. The invasion of neurology by neuropsychology is damaging the objectivity and validity of neurology, and is a major opportunity for lazy or inept professionals to exploit with patient dumping from one school of medicine to another. (I liked the book "Toxic Psychiatry" by Peter Breggin). Neuropsychological testing in itself cannot differentiate between epileptic and nonepileptic disorders. Epilepsy, especially TLE, renders psychological testing invalid, including the MMPI. Another major problem is that many types of limbic epilepsy do not display eeg irregularities, without resorting to internal implantations of electrodes. One of my currently favorite papers that reveals the mess of neuropsychology's labeling standards is on: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2687521/pdf/nihms84634.pdf Pages 12-13, Pulling it all together, and then, Phenomenology, somewhat illustrates the great mess. There are many other non-epileptic neurological impairments that often result from injuries that do not involve seizures. The book "Fractured Minds" by Jenni A. Ogden has many case studies of a wide range of neurological impairments that are easily confounded with psychological impairments. Tadzio

Re: Epilepsy?? Or Schizophrenia??

Submitted by maBenzi on Mon, 2009-11-30 - 05:41

You seem to have had a lot of head injuries. I assume you have told them is. That is the key.

For what it is worth my shrink friend has on more than one ocassion realised that the client has a type of epilepsy and referred them to a neuro and was correct. In other words yes, this does happen.

In smell strange smells all the time. Or smells others can't. It is complicated. And very frequently dismissed by the neuros.

Re: Epilepsy?? Or Schizophrenia??

Submitted by deew on Mon, 2009-11-30 - 10:55

We have just completed another veeg on my son who has had problems with depersonalization and derealization.  He had a brain mass on the rt. temporal and frontal areas of the brain removed 10 yrs ago.  He has been treated for anxiety with these symptoms with little relief and increasing symptoms especially over the past six months.  We now have a great neurologist who really listened to  him and consulted with some friends.  They added extra temporal leads for his veeg (past tests showed only abnormalities from the surgery, no seizure activity).  They were trying to avoid internal leads of any kind.  They found both rt. and lt. grossly abnormal electrical activity...both temporal lobes....on and on through the night and day.  Both the dr. and tech said they almost never use those leads anymore because in 30 years of their practice it has not lead to any significant findings that they didn't get with the standard hook-up.  They said they learned a big lesson.  My son (limited ability to communicate) was telling them it feels like all the time  now, and it nearly is.  He too smells things that are not there and was feeling so sad, asking if he just had to live like this forever.   You know yourself, trust your gut and if it is not psychological find a dr. who is willing to really investigate.