stress induced seizure

[kim1969]

my 17 yr old daughter has in the past 2 months "passed out" during routing medical procedures. The first time the eye doctor put drops in her eyes to dialte them. The second time she received a vaccine injection.  Both times her eyes were open and she lost sense of sight and hearing. She dreamed of fairys and ponys  she said. She got really hot and sweatty both times and turned a sickley greenish white after her blackouts. Her arm and hand twitched the first time and the second her head and eyes twitched.  I'm a little concerned about this. Does it sound like passing out or fainting spell. Or more like a seizure? both times the actual "epasodes" lasted about 30-45 seconds. total Recovery was about 10 minutes

[Audrika9]

Hi in this past year I have had some anxiety induced seizures. I have a phobia of throwing up and seeing throw up and that caused my seizures and I have high anxiety problems and OCD. I also am hypoglycemic so I have blood sugar problems. All of these problems induced my seizures is what the doctor said, but I'm not taking any meds for it I just have to eat a lot of protein. I'm 18 years old so I know what your daughter is going through, sounds a lot like me. One of my seizures was in the doctors office when they were trying to take my blood. I wish I had a diagnosis or something so it won't happen again but I keep passing out and blacking out.

[kiki1977]

Hi,

I can totally feel what your daughter is going through, I have personally experienced "fear of doctors".  I too, had a seizure "both" times my eyes were dilated at the eye dr.  I also can relate to having "blackouts/seizures" during bloodwork/ anything to do with seizures.  I am now 30 yrs. old and for the past 5 years have taken klonopin to deal w/ anxiety.  It has helped remarkably!  I went off of it in January 08, as my husband and I are looking forward to having children in the near future.  I continue to take Lexapro and Gabapentin.  Lexapro for the anxiety and Gabapentin for the seizure disorder.  I have noticed that "ALL" my seizures have been anxiety induced, even as a child.  I often  am frustrated that I don't have an exact diagnosis as well.  Let her know she's not the only out there. :)

[Godofredo MD]

Hi.

There are some literature on phobias available online which could provide you with some information on how your daughter could deal with her fear. However, it would still be advisable to have professional help when dealing with this kind of conditions. Since your daughter doesn't have any problems going to a gynecologist or dentist, it might be a more specific phobia that she has, and she probably wouldn't be afraid of a therapist also.

Some therapies available for phobias include the following:

- cognitive behavior therapy: in this treatment, the therapist and the patient work together to help identify and correct thinking patterns that lead to irrational fears.

- behavior therapy: the patient practices to gradually confront the feared object or situation over time, with the goal of gradually becoming more skilled at coping with these situations.

- medications: this is generally not as effective as the first two and is mainly used to help reduce anxiety or the signs and symptoms of anxiety.

Hope this helps.

[kim1969]

Hello. Thankyou for your expertise advise. She does suffer with low blood sugar. Never an eppisode outside of the doctor that i know. She is TERRIFIED of doctors. No past trama that I know of. I am leaning to your opinion that she has a fear of doctors. How do I help her with this fear?  Can I some how prepare her for future visits? She has to go back in 2 months for another shot!.
     She recently went to the gyno and the dentist with no problems what so ever.  Could it be some type of fear of needles/ and or eye drop issues?  Thankyou for your time.

[Godofredo MD]

Hi.

Any history of recent trauma? Has she got low blood pressure? Has this episode happened before aside from when your daughter was within the vicinity of a doctor? Was she ever like this in the past, when she was younger? Also, and I really have to ask this to rule it out, is she afraid of doctors? Where there any traumatizing experiences before this related to going to a doctor?

If this episodes occurred only when she visited a physician and does not occur in other stressful situations or activities, I would be inclined to think of this as a fainting spell, probably secondary to iatrophobia (fear of doctors).

However, a seizure disorder cannot be ruled out at present. It would probably be best  to observe the symptom for the moment to see if they would recur, outside the hospital setting, then bring her to a physician to assess her for a possible seizure disorder or hypotensive disorder.

Good luck.