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Left frontal temporal lobe seizures

My son had a 10 minute eeg while awake yesterday.  The EEG guy said he saw the left frontal temporal lobe have several spikes ,,,I think he may have had a staring kind of siezure in the waiting room.... he was then a challenge to go down the hall to get to the eeg room,,   MY GUY also has autism and in the past had siezures that were more obvious.   His behaviors are getting more difficult....  School has been doing seclusion room.... I am opposed to this treatment of my son and his behaviors....  but since yesterday.... I am wanting to understand this type of siezure activity more.... maybe his behaviors are actually siezures???   Doctor has begun to restart the Topamax.... I will gradually bring him back to 100Mg. 2 X day..... He is 12..... we had stopped this topamax because I thought the drug was making him have sever anxiety.... not wanting to walk down hallways or go out to community areas.... use the restroom at the gas station on long trips.... He just behaved like we were making him walk Death row..  But his behaviors really did not improve and he still was kicking and behaving baddly.... mostly at school.... then it started coming home.... aggressive behavior   so I think it was this seclusion room.... maybe they were punishing him for behaviors he was having that were siezure related and not autism related????   Anyway....  We are again going back on topamax.....  he lost alot of weight when he was on it the last time so Dr. is increasing melarill too.....   Can anyone tell me more about these types of siezures????   I have learned more about autism throughout the years and I think I have ignore the significants of the siezure issue with my son.... his siezures used to be more obvious when he was a little guy and require a visit to the emergency room for valium..... now they seem to be more sneaky.  He might be staring of giggly now.... or even more welcoming to a mom under stress he is sometimes quite calm and quiet.  Thanks   gracem
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10682589 tn?1411973352
I am a 44year old woman who was hit by a car at a 12, I was thrown 20 feet into a curb were my head hit. I had a closed head injury or that's what I was told. I started having trimmers in my hands after the accident and had migrians for many years. I started having seizures in my 30's after a botched surgery on my esophagus. Is it possible that left Temporal lobe Seizures can cause split personalities later in life. I am expierancing  a personality chance that's scary to say the least. Its like I'm something else who wants out or come thru. I watched myself cuss my daughter on her phone out and laugh in such a frightening way. I am being tested for left temporal lobe seizures again. I just hope I can get back to a some what normal life. I'm a Psychology Major in College this semester and it's getting really hard to attend my classes. If anyone has any Ideas about this condition please any ideas would be welcomed. I have been on meds like Keppera, Lomotragien, and some others in the past 10 years. I am on Gabapentin, Divalproex and Lorazepan at the moment but I have been on Gabapentin for more then 8 years now and I'm On 900mg 3 times a day. I am not the first in my family to have siezures my daughter, niece and now my granddaughter is being tested for left temporal lobe seizures. Does anyone have siezures run in their family.
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Avatar universal
My now 23 yr old son was brain injured (TBI) in an automobile accident at age 7.  Frontal/Temporal lobe damage petit mal (absence) seizures and grand mal seizures initially.  There was an extrordinary personality change and an initial psychosis that was frightening.  Mellaril is an anti-psychotic in classification; are you sure about this med and your son?  We did Mellaril; but only until I figured out the side effects.  They weren't good for my son.  Yours may be different.  What really helped my son was Neurontin, 300mg TID. The grand mal seizures stopped over time, but he has absence seizures every day without the medication.  He always will.  Structure is the most important thing; check some websites on "executive functions."  Learn about them, learn everything.  I had the neuropsychologist come to my son's school and talk to the teachers.  It was more credible, even though I am a psychologist.  I'm not neuro, neither are you.  Use the professionals that you have at hand.  He may be a more visual than auditory learner - use colors and different fonts.  He needs to be a success, or he WILL medicate himself.  An 18 yr old drunk driver hit us on the way to my son's baseball game when he was 7.  He was a Level 5 gymnast, but was unable to continue after the accident.  Check all areas for the frontal lobe info - even physician's med school books.  In St. louis, it's Matthew's Books, they probably have a website.  Learn as much as you can.  It will all be to your son's benefit.  You are strong, the aggression is probably worsening.   We used the Neurontin, Adderall 20 mg AM and noon and Prozac 20 mg.    Even though he may not be ADD or ADHD, the Adderall helps with the executive functions processes.  You'll be fine, write if you need.
gracew.
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Avatar universal
Nene11 here - I am 45 years old and also have a sleep disorder, hyper insomulence.  It is a disorder where I do not REM.  Can this cause siezures.  Also, dexamphetamine helped but I had a waking seizure and felt peace and love, a transcendental seizure for over 30 days.  The Psychiatrists branded me with  no conversatiion Scitofrenic. When I feel a seizure coming on I am fearfull and wide awake and cannot sleep, but I have trained myself to sleep using a musical note.  I hear radio stations through motor noises.  I can see auras and energy.  This is a realy strange TLE.  I was told it was rare.  I do not have a clue what medication i need to be on.  Maybe none.  I can feel a hearts pull of others and I am very spiritually aware.  My mind has not been harmed  -  yet - as I am pulling out every technique I know to protect my higher brain functions.  Its great to find a site that may help.  Do you know any on line doctor to divulge all my secrets.  My TLE gives me the ability to be creative but also the darkest fear.
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Avatar universal
I have TLE and have been branded everything from Borderline, Bi-polar, Manic depressive, ADHD and Scitsofrenia.  I am concered about my seizures as they are disociative and seemingly psycic.  I am on epilim which does not help and serequel which makes my heart pump and the other night my pulse went to 168 and also I have blacked out on them.  I have premonitions and have a gift for understanding others.  If I refuse the medication they will put me on injections.  The serequel I think maybe causing DT as I cannot stop chewing my mouth and my big toe.  I am jerking all the time, and I am experiencing alien beings and my cat saw them as well - I feel as though I am out of my body, but sometimes like a rubber band, and the room is another dimension.  Scary....I also have severe Fibromyalgia and the sensations and pain I believe may have a connection with my eplilepsy. The reason I say is because the g spot on the back of my neck is uncontrolably stimulated during a seizure.  I am always aware that I am having a seizure but the serequal bomb me out, electric shocks in the legs.  What can I do?  I need to know more about what is happening to me, but no one here is listening.  Please help
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Avatar universal
We started melarill and Elavil and noticed MY GUY become very crazy when we DCed the meds after Depakote elevated enzyme or the Sleepy  incident......   After he was on NO Meds... I begged the Dr. to put him back on   Melarill and Elavil ..... I know that these are Old school drugs but we have been on many... seroquel  (not much improvement....)   Welbuterin... Violent..... Busperone... Hyper...   Ambilify... not good....    Risperdol   Fattened him up like a steroid....
Then I think when we went off of that... the depakote was like Yeast and risperidol warm water.... the depakote kept his weight going up...

I feel for you as a parent.... it is so heartbreaking to have our children behave so baddly....  and it seems as no matter what... we have the finger of blame pointing at us....     I only wish I had the autistic kids that make TV with a sevant gift.....    Gracem
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Avatar universal
DEAR GRACEM,
I'M VERY SORRY FOR YOUR SON TO BE GOING THREW THESE PROBLEMS I HAVE A 5 YEAR OLD SON WITH TUBEROUS SCLEROSIS. HE HAS THE STARING SIEZURES AT LEAST 10 TIMES A DAY HE IS ON A DRUG CALLED KEPPRA. HE IS ALSO ON TOPAMAX AND DEPAKOTE.AS FOR HIS BEHVIER IT IS A TYPE OF SIEZURE ASK YOUR DR FOR A DRUG CALLED CLONADINE IT HELPS WITH ADHD PATIENTS I HAVE GONE THREW A ROUGH TIME WITH MY SON AND I'M STILL GOING THREW IT. MY SON HAS LOTS OF DIFFERENT SIEZURE THAT THE DR CAN'T EVEN EXPLAIN.SOME OF THEM ARE CAUSEING BRAIN DAMAGE. WE HAVE TRIED THESE THREE DRUGS AND HAVE GOTTEN THEM DOWN TO 5-10 A DAY COMPARE TO 20-30 A DAY. GOOD BYE FOR NOW GOOD LUCK WITH YOUR SON.
                                          ALWAYS APRIL
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368886 tn?1466235284
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
Hello.

Is Mellaril working well ? It is an old drug. Most people do not use it. But I would not rather touch (change) Mellaril or Elavil. I would treat him with Tegretol. That would be my first choice.

Regards
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Avatar universal
tegretol or topamax
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Avatar universal
Thank You for answering..... Years ago we had MY GUY on Depakote for a long time.... but one day he was sleeping like he had Mono.... or Rip VanWinkle..... I think something was happening in his liver because we had to drop all of his drugs Cold Turkey.... This was not fun for us at home.... I told the doctor that he was very much a "Bull In a China Shop"...   He was Beyond Hyper! This is why we have the Topamax.....  we had been on it for a while then my son lost a lot of weight.... this was good because years earlier when he was on the depakote another dr gave him risperidol...... He was very much at the refrigerator with fork in hand and ATE himself to 165+ Lbs.... at 10-11 yr.... so the fat melted like butter with the Topamax.... (I heard Anna Nicole had this in her at her autopsy)   and Being a heavy person myself wished I could lose weight like MY GUY was.... the problem was that we thought that the Topamax created anxiety .... he walked down halls like we were taking him down death row.....   he began being fearful of community places.... and we were having trouble going any place with him.  We still are.
So we went off topamax for a while without a significant change in his behavior or anxiety....  his aggressive behaviors were getting more at school.... they kept using a seclusion room.. I am against it.... they seem not to care.... he began getting more violent and aggressive with me at home... this has improved since he stay away from school and the seclusion room over Holiday break.....    
The EEG guy talked about these Spikes in the Left Frontal temporal lobe that he had seen several within the 10 min. eeg done while he was awake.  The Doctor again thought about Depakote but we reminded him of the Rip Van Winkle ..... thing and he kept the topamax because he thought it was next best choice..... Should tegretol be a better choice or would it create the same conflict as Depakote?   Also my son has been on Mellaril  we are now increasing to 300mg day and Elavill 75mg... Elavill helps him to have a normal sleep patern and the Mellaril is supposed to make him less hyper  and the increase in the dose the Dr. hopes will not make my son too skinny.

As a parent ...  it is very heartbreaking to find that my child creates such disruption....  I now find myself MORE hopeful that IF we can control this area of his Brain.... Maybe we will beable to better LIVE with him.... He is getting Older.... Bigger and stronger.... I am getting Older and more out of shape to keep up with him....
Also I found it interesting that only 10% of Autistic kids have epilepsy....
from past reading I thought it was common.... especially in Boys.  
Any more suggestions.....   I am so happy I found this forum....  I hope this is the right direction....gracem
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368886 tn?1466235284
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
Hello.

I apologize for spotting your post so late. I will try to throw some light.

First off, not many children with autism have seizures. There are no conclusive figures, but overall, about 10% have epilepsy along with autism. One of the reasons why such a low percentage of children are detected to have epilepsy is that not all physicians suspect epilepsy. Certain behaviors are ignored to be part of autism.

The frontal and temporal lobes are commonly the lobes involved in autism with seizures.

A Temporal lobe seizure is more confusing. Temporal lobe is an important structure which has areas for emotions and memory. Temporal lobe seizures can present as various symptoms, like rage, anger, dreams, hallucinations, etc. Your son might as well have been punished for behaviors he was not doing on purpose. They were actually mini-seizures. But it is hard to detect for untrained eyes and minds. Another aspect is that of the innate behavioral patterns in autism. The brain "wiring" in autism has been in such a way that any disturbed function will show differently, as compared to a normally wired brain.

Frontal lobe has intellectual capacities and the mood. The left side frontal lobe helps keep the mood up. A seizure causes dysfunction of the mood. And we see mood swings.

Your thinking is absolutely on the right track. You just need to discuss with the doctor treating your child about the medicines. The seizures that he has are partial seizures. The best known drugs so far for partial seizures are Carbamazepine (Tegretol) and Valproic acid / Sodium Valproate. Topamax is a good anti-convulsant, but it may not be suitable for him. The added benefit of Carbamazepine and Valproic acid is that they help control the aggressive behaviors. This has been a consistent experience in my clinical practice.

The problems are many. But the child suffers the most. He just needs someone to understand him. And I am glad that you are a most caring mother.

Hope I have been of some help.

Regards
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Avatar universal
Hi  Checking to get answer or refer to web site????    
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Avatar universal
Maybe you can answer this are you a different dr?  Trying to get an answer
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just trying to keep my question on the top so it gets an answer.......I still see Dr on ine.
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Avatar universal
Can you tell any more information on Left frontal Temporal Lobe siezures and autism????
I see you seem to be involved more with MS.....  Should I be on a different sight?  gracem
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Avatar universal
hoping the Doctor has some answers while he is on about siesures????
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