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ADHD/ADD vs. Bipolar
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<blockquote data-quote="Sara PA" data-source="post: 12854" data-attributes="member: 1498"><p>[ QUOTE ]</p><p></p><p>I did talk to difficult child's neurologist about behavior and partial complex seizures. He told me there's no known cause and effect between seizures and behavioral issues, but that there is a higher incidence of behavioral issues in kids with partial complex seizures. I'm not sure if I understood that correctly, and we're pursuing a new neurologist, so I'll ask the question again. But, when my son was unmedicated for his seizures I could absolutely tell you when he was going to have a "seizure day" based on his behavior. And it was as erratic and unpredictable as - I think - bipolar behaviors must be.</p><p></p><p>[/ QUOTE ]</p><p>This is one of the things that has fascinated me over the years. When my seizure disorder was diagnosed based on the tonic-clonic (grand mal) seizures I was having, not my slightly abnormal EEG, my IBS/colitis/whatever I was having stopped the day I started an anticonvulsant. My GP, educated in the 50's, immediately knew that I had been having abdominal seizures. My subsequent neurologists and other doctors educated in the late 60's on were totally unfamiliar with the concept of partial seizures, attributing all of those symptoms to stress and psychological causes, a result on the increased emphasis on psychiatry and psychology in the '60s and '70s. I knew my old GP was right because of how I felt and how my life had changed. To a person, the younger doctors insisted it was pure coincidence that my last episode ever of IBS/colitis was the day <em>before</em> I took Dilantin. </p><p></p><p>When my son was a toddler, I watched him have "tantrums" but I knew by the look in his eyes and his expression and the predictable pattern and duration (for him 45 minutes unless something continued to trigger them) of the episodes that these weren't normal toddler tantrums. I knew he was having "some sort of seizures" as I told the doctors. They all disregarded me because they had no knowledge of emotional seizures. These epsidodes continued to occur a few times a year until he was put on medication for depression when those episodes dramatically increased in number and severity. By then he was 14, taller than his father and weighted as much as me. He became violent. When I got little help from the medical profession, I turned to the computer and started learning.</p><p></p><p>It didn't take more than one google to find a site which mentioned partial seizures can manifest in emotional explosions. This information is available in site dedicated to epilepsy and in both neurological and psychological journals. Why doctors don't know I have can't explain. It isn't new. </p><p></p><p>Seizures are, as is usually described, short circuits in the brain. Whatever is controlled by the part of the brain that short circuits will be affected by the seizure activity. If that part of the brain controls the bowels, than you have a form of abdominal seizures. If that part of the brain controls emotions, you have an emotional seizure. My son has had a few small seizures in the sensory areas of his brain, once causing him to smell gasoline in the house where there was no gasoline, another time causing him to hear the phone ring when it wasn't ringing. Other than hearing/smelling those things, he was otherwise perfectly normal at the time. I also think he's had some seizures that have caused him to taste things that weren't there, usually a burned taste because he use to complain that food tasted burned (it wasn't) all the time when he was having a lot of partial seizure activity.</p><p></p><p>It is very hard to tease out what is seizure activity, bipolar and psychiatric adverse reations to medication. But then, the more I read the less I believe there is much difference for some people. Antidepressants, antipsychotics and stimulants can all lower the seizure threshold. Are some psychiatric adverse reactions to some medications seizure activity for some people? I wouldn't be surprised. Unfortunately we simply don't know what is going on within the brains of our children when their behavior is uncontrolable.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Sara PA, post: 12854, member: 1498"] [ QUOTE ] I did talk to difficult child's neurologist about behavior and partial complex seizures. He told me there's no known cause and effect between seizures and behavioral issues, but that there is a higher incidence of behavioral issues in kids with partial complex seizures. I'm not sure if I understood that correctly, and we're pursuing a new neurologist, so I'll ask the question again. But, when my son was unmedicated for his seizures I could absolutely tell you when he was going to have a "seizure day" based on his behavior. And it was as erratic and unpredictable as - I think - bipolar behaviors must be. [/ QUOTE ] This is one of the things that has fascinated me over the years. When my seizure disorder was diagnosed based on the tonic-clonic (grand mal) seizures I was having, not my slightly abnormal EEG, my IBS/colitis/whatever I was having stopped the day I started an anticonvulsant. My GP, educated in the 50's, immediately knew that I had been having abdominal seizures. My subsequent neurologists and other doctors educated in the late 60's on were totally unfamiliar with the concept of partial seizures, attributing all of those symptoms to stress and psychological causes, a result on the increased emphasis on psychiatry and psychology in the '60s and '70s. I knew my old GP was right because of how I felt and how my life had changed. To a person, the younger doctors insisted it was pure coincidence that my last episode ever of IBS/colitis was the day [i]before[/i] I took Dilantin. When my son was a toddler, I watched him have "tantrums" but I knew by the look in his eyes and his expression and the predictable pattern and duration (for him 45 minutes unless something continued to trigger them) of the episodes that these weren't normal toddler tantrums. I knew he was having "some sort of seizures" as I told the doctors. They all disregarded me because they had no knowledge of emotional seizures. These epsidodes continued to occur a few times a year until he was put on medication for depression when those episodes dramatically increased in number and severity. By then he was 14, taller than his father and weighted as much as me. He became violent. When I got little help from the medical profession, I turned to the computer and started learning. It didn't take more than one google to find a site which mentioned partial seizures can manifest in emotional explosions. This information is available in site dedicated to epilepsy and in both neurological and psychological journals. Why doctors don't know I have can't explain. It isn't new. Seizures are, as is usually described, short circuits in the brain. Whatever is controlled by the part of the brain that short circuits will be affected by the seizure activity. If that part of the brain controls the bowels, than you have a form of abdominal seizures. If that part of the brain controls emotions, you have an emotional seizure. My son has had a few small seizures in the sensory areas of his brain, once causing him to smell gasoline in the house where there was no gasoline, another time causing him to hear the phone ring when it wasn't ringing. Other than hearing/smelling those things, he was otherwise perfectly normal at the time. I also think he's had some seizures that have caused him to taste things that weren't there, usually a burned taste because he use to complain that food tasted burned (it wasn't) all the time when he was having a lot of partial seizure activity. It is very hard to tease out what is seizure activity, bipolar and psychiatric adverse reations to medication. But then, the more I read the less I believe there is much difference for some people. Antidepressants, antipsychotics and stimulants can all lower the seizure threshold. Are some psychiatric adverse reactions to some medications seizure activity for some people? I wouldn't be surprised. Unfortunately we simply don't know what is going on within the brains of our children when their behavior is uncontrolable. [/QUOTE]
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