Left frontal temporal lobe seizures

[gracem]

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

[gracem]

hoping the Doctor has some answers while he is on about siesures????

[gracem]

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

[gracem]

just trying to keep my question on the top so it gets an answer.......I still see Dr on ine.

[gracem]

Maybe you can answer this are you a different dr?  Trying to get an answer

[gracem]

Hi  Checking to get answer or refer to web site????    

[Abhijeet Deshmukh, MD]

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

[gracem]

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

[gracem]

tegretol or topamax

[Abhijeet Deshmukh, MD]

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