Dear Dee:
Absence seizures are very brief and very frequent. They usually occur multiple times in a day. They have a very characterized EEG pattern of "3 hertz, spike and wave". They disrupt the pattern of living with brief moments of loss of consciousness, can occur with lip smacking, eye blinking etc. They occur at play, eating, etc. There is usually no post-ictal state, no after behavior changes, and incontinence. Your son sounds like he has partial complex seizures. I think you would agree that his seizures do not sound in anyway like absence.
Concerning tegratol, I think we already talked about levels and the need to make sure a given drug is at it's optimal level. Furthermore, this type of epilepsy is very difficult to control.
I hope I have helped clarify the two epilepsies for you.
Sincerely,
CCF Neuro MD
Hi, I was just curious after reading this post. So I have a question for the Dr. I worked in a epilepsy center for awhile. And I remember the subject of Tegretol Induced seizures coming up (but not often). So I can't remember exactly what the theory was. Can Tegretol, in rare cases cause pt's with complex partial seizres to have absence seizures? Or was it if a pt. with absence seizure is somehow put on tegretol, they could have a dramtic increase in their absence seizures? When this mom mentioned she thought tegretol may have had something to do with this, it made me wonder.
Dear EEG Tech:
Tegratol would make absence seizures worse. At the Cleveland Clinic, we call the 3 hertz-spke wave absence, while the variants generalized. As absence, either classic and variant, are for the vast majority of patients generalized seizures, we would not treat with a partial epilepsy medication. Tegratol does work on some generalized epilepsies but not in absence.
I hope that I didn't confuse you.
Sincerely,