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What's the difference between pseudo seizures and actual epileptic seizures?

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Epilepsy
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Posted 5/23/2013 4:59 AM (GMT 0)
My girl with autism has seizures. At first the doctors thought its just psuedo seizures cuz nothing came back on the eegs and open MRI and when they did a 3 day veeg, she only lasted less then a day and everything came back normal yet she has seizures at any time or moment even if she lays on the couch. She has them in her sleep, I've woken her up, a combination of drool and blood on the pillow, bed drenched in sweat, and she barely able to move, achey and exhausted. I've watched her just drop and fall into a seizure, body straight like an arrow, stiff, arms flailing, sometimes she shakes, goes in and out of consciousness, etc out of nowhere. She has staring spells, drop spells, random jerks/twitching, every weird kind you can think of. I even videotaped a over 45 minute seizure and posted it on youtube to help show the doctor. During the video EEG she had a couple drop seizures that concerned the nurses but the one doctor said he thought it was related to her autism and it didn't show up on EEG. It's like a huge runaround with tons of different seizure meds that none seemed to help and literally every day she has some kind of seizure for no reason. Her neuro right now says its possible to not detect anything on EEG cuz the seizures are too deep within the brain. Does what I'm saying sound like psuedo seizures? Or epileptic? When I say they happen literally no reason why it's like a *** moment. One day she was laying on the couch awake stimming happily with her rubber dinosaur she likes to bite and boom just stiffs up, arms jerk, drools and I got to run over and catch her before she falls off the couch or hits her head. It's ridiculous. Any ideas?
Posted 5/23/2013 11:02 PM (GMT 0)
"pseudo seizure" is a label given to seizures that exhibit a normal EEG which IMO is not correct in all cases. Just because the EEG is normal does not mean that it is a pseudo seizure only. There are deep brain seizures that don't register on an EEG. My wife had a craniotomy in 1984 to repair an AVM rupture. Before her stroke and subsequent surgery, she had no seizures or headaches of any kind. Over the last 15 years, she has developed a seizure disorder as a result of the brain trama from her AVM and surgery. Her EEGs during seizure activity are normal because they are deep in the brain. EEGs only register electrical activity on the surface and show nothing about what's going on deep in the brain.

Based on your description, I would say your daughter has deep brain seizures that ARE NOT pseudo seizures. Deep brain seizures are misunderstood by the neurological community as a whole IMO. I think too many neurologists are too hasty in their diagnoses of "pseudo seizures" when the EEG comes back normal. Pseudo seizures do exist but the label can't cover all seizures that show a normal EEG. If the neurologist gives a diagnosis of "pseudo seizure", find another neurologist...

I hope you can find meds for your daughter that will help control the seizure activity...
Posted 5/26/2013 3:41 AM (GMT 0)
For me I don't think there is such a thing as psudo seizures either you have one or you don't . I will keep her in my Prayers . GOD is good and will Bless her . What about her EEG's and when they check her blood levels , how do they come back ?
Posted 5/26/2013 3:43 AM (GMT 0)
S2lr thank you because I learned alot from your post .
Posted 5/28/2013 5:18 PM (GMT 0)
Thank you for getting back to me. She needs another EEG soon but were doing a battery of genetic testing on her to see what we find there. Just need some answers.
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