Behavior/cognitive issues with epileptic children

[BusynMember]

Always make sure your difficult child has an epileptic test. Even absence seizures can cause big problems that get worse without medication.
At this late date in my life, the neurologist thinks my cognitive and even mood issues are both related to a lifetime of absence seizures.

http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S1059131106000367

 

[DammitJanet]

MWM....I have wondered about this too. Seems ironic that the drugs for epilepsy help mood disorders to me.

I am supposed to get my results from my neuropsychologist next friday. Now she gave me a slight hint at what she thinks the results are going to be and I really dont know that I am going to be completely trusting this womans results too much but we shall see. She did say she thinks my biggest area of concern was my visual memory. Hmmm... I dont know.

 

[BestICan]

Hear, hear! I was SO lucky that my difficult child was unusually articulate at 5 years old, and was able to describe his episodes to me. That led me to take him to the neurologist and get him diagnosed. His behavior was erratic and completely out of control when his seizures were unmedicated. And his seizures were totally invisible to the onlooker. I shudder to think what would have happened to him socially, developmentally, etc. if we hadn't diagnosed the seizures so early.

 

[susiestar]

Thanks for stressing this. I have learned so much about seizures since Jessie's diagnosis of Absence Seizures. I actually think she has other seizures as well, but so far all the tests are inconclusive for other seizures.

But Mama knows.

I too think it very interesting that many other disorders are helped by antiseizure medications. Mood disorders are only one, migraines, chronic pain, neuropathy (nerve pain), etc... are all helped by these.

I currently take both lyrica AND keppra, keppra added at my pain doctor appointment.

My first awareness of seizures was when, oh what is her name - she had a child put on many medications and then discovered seizures were the cause of his gfgness and seh stressed getting EEGs??? I am name-blanking right now, but you know who I mean. Anyway, she pushed me so hard to get the EEG for Wiz that I got one for Jessie too. And Jessie popped with epilepsy!! Totally out of the blue.

So anyway, thsi is quite fascinating!

 

[BusynMember]

I have face blindness and a non-existent visual memory. I've had staring spells all of my life.
My twelve year old is complaining that she daydreams a lot and can't pay attention. I"m going to get an EEG on her and me.
I've had "soft neurological signs" all my life, since childhood, AND moodswings. I used to complain about "staring spells." Everyone ignored me. I believe I have a mild case of epilepsy that caused MAJOR problems.
I wanted to warn parents of kids who tend to have attentional issues that it could be absence seizures (where is Sara when you want her? ).
I'll bet epilepsy goes along many times with bipolar, ADHD, Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) and other learning disorders. And we don't think to check THAT out. I used to lose a few second's time. I still do sometimes...BUT...I've been on Clonazapen forever. This medication is used as an anti-epileptic as well as anti-anxiety. When I take it (and it's PRN) I feel much more focused and less spacy.)
Be sure to check your kids out neurologically. That is NOT the same as having a neuropsychologist evaluation. Both are much needed and two entirely differnet professionals. I recommend both.

 

[DammitJanet]

Im on klonopin too as well as two other seizure medications but my visual memory just stinks. Verbal Im not too bad on. I have always been much better with verbal things.

 

[Andy]

Oh MidWest - once again so much like my difficult child.

My difficult child was on Clonazepam last Winter for anxiety. We cancelled a 48 hr EEG because symptoms went away. He has been off the Clonazepam since June or July and is now getting some weird symptoms returning. We will have a 48 hr EEG scheduled for July of this year (unless we can prove that this is an urgency and they have emergency openings? I hope so though I don't know if it can work that way - we probably have to wait our turn - thank goodness the school year is almost over.)

psychiatrist mentioned memory testing and is gathering info from the school. I noticed a large drop in comprehension from 4th grade to 5th grade (too early for this years test I think?). Teacher said the results are normal but I don't think anyone has looked at comparing from one year to the next to notice that drop. Last years score may be in normal not to worry about range on their own but it is a huge drop (at least 20 - 30 percentage points) between the two years.

difficult child is stating he does not recognize things or people. Mornings seem to be the worst by far. I was gone this weekend and he melted tonight after holding everything in over the weekend.

In the meantime, I think I am going to increase therapist visits to once per week again. It is getting to hard to listen to him complaining that his head is shutting down, he is going blind, he is loosing his voice, and he is dying. He might as well tell therapist about it instead of me. therapist will pass along to psychiatrist.

I also need to set up the next visit with psychiatrist. It has been four weeks and I don't see enough improvements using the Flouxetine. The Xanax helped these last few days but I don't feel comfortable giving it to him every morning. However, knowing it does help may point us to another less addicting medication? I don't know.

 

[tiredmommy]

MWM- do you mean SaraPa?