Epilepsy Eternity?

Hi,

I am 16 years old and I had unawared seizures since I was 10 years old. I have been taking medication (Trileptal) and I had no seziures after a few years of taking this medication. It was not until summer 2007 when I started to have seizures again, but this time, these seizures I were aware of. My mom thought it was just me being worried and just thinking about so she continued to reduce the dosage. After returning home from vacation, I was playing Nitendo Wii and two days after, I had a seizure which seemed stronger than before, but I was still aware of it. My family knew then that Nitendo Wii had an effect on my epilepsy. Recently, I had a EEG and the results were positive. I still had them in the left brain lobe. I know that I might have told a story, but really my main questions are:

Will my seizures continue on for a few more years or will it be there for the rest of my life?
What do I have to avoid in order to prevent seizures?

My doctor told me that he is not really sure as well, but he said that we will have to check once I am 21.

[Abhijeet Deshmukh, MD]

Hello.

The good sign is that you do not lose consciousness during the seizures anymore. This is an improvement over what you had at 10.

Your seizures are simple partial seizures. You should continue Trileptal for a few more years. There are high chances that you will successfully control the seizures for life. Do not reduce the dose without asking the doctor. The present seizures may have been exacerbated by reduction in the dose.

Nintendo does trigger seizures. Avoid it as much as you can.

You might wat to read this article.

Video-game epilepsy: a European study.
Kasteleijn-Nolst Trenité DG, da Silva AM, Ricci S, Binnie CD, Rubboli G, Tassinari CA, Segers JP.
Epilepsia. 1999;40 Suppl 4:70-4

Regards