pseudoseizures ..is it common?

[jasmine49]

Hi, I was dx by a movement specialist out of New York, that I have a psedoseizeizures. The report said That I will probably have them the rest of my life, and that they are caused subconsiously. I have had them for at lease 7 years now. I feel all alone and crazy, because I don't know of anyone else that goes through these. If I can't get them under control, I end up in the emergency room and everyone yells at me and says I'm doing it on purpose. When it gets that bad 25 mg of benadryl injected, calms me down. I noticed I get these mostly when I try to go to sleep and relax. I get them in public when I have intense fear of my surrounding. Does anyone have these and what do you do for them?

Thank-you

[emsfire83]

  Thanks for the explaination. My sister went through this July 3,08 and went to the hospital by ambulance. while in the ambulance she had another. She got to the e.r. and had 4 more. the doctor came and witnessed one of them and while she was haveing one he came in and pinched her neck hard, so hard in fact that he was about to be stopped by me and my father, but when he did it she stopped. I work in the medical field as an E.M.T./ Firefighter for about 5 years and my dad retiered as a LT. in the fire dept. after 25 years and we never seen it treated liked that.

Once the e.r. doctor stopped the "seizure" he kept saying she was , and i quote "fakeing it" which pissed my father off. After choosing his words better, he stated she was manufacturing them in her head.  So if you could help in any other manner or what you think she/we should do next it would help alot. Like I said thanks again.   Todd
                                                                                                    

[jasmine49]

Thank-you, You seem to be more informative and understanding then my psych DR.is. My therapist on the other hand has actually seen me in one and understands what I'm going through. At first I didn't belive the dx, because it is like a demon taking over your body. I woke up from a colonoscopy in one. My therapist tried to hypotize me and I went into one that threw me on the floor. I'm on psych meds for various psych disorders, but when I mention that I'm having trouble with those movements, the psych Dr. just looks at me, and my therapist says, "I thought you were over those." I do have a video and medical report , but it's like no one knows what to do to help me. I don't think I have the fictious type because I get physically ill just prior to the onset of one.

Thanks again everyone for your help.

[DrKalraMD]

PNES are common at epilepsy centers, where they are seen in 20-30% of patients referred for refractory seizures. PNES are probably also common in the general population, with an estimated prevalence of 2-33 cases per 100,000 population, which makes PNES nearly as prevalent as multiple sclerosis or trigeminal neuralgia.

[DrKalraMD]

Hi, pseudoseizures are also called psycogenic non epileptic seizures(PNES). “Unlike epileptic seizures, PNES do not result from an abnormal electrical discharge from the brain; they are a physical manifestation of a psychological disturbance. They are a type of conversion disorder or, more broadly, a type of somatoform disorder, and they are usually involuntary. PNES can also result from voluntary faking (feigning), as in malingering and factitious disorder. This cause is thought to be rare, but it is difficult to prove.
Treatment includes psychotherapy and use of adjunctive medications to treat coexisting anxiety or depression.
Unfortunately, mental health services are not always easily available, especially for noninsured patients.
Another obstacle is that psychiatrists tend to be skeptical about the diagnosis of psychogenic symptoms. Even in PNES, for which EEG video monitoring allows for near-certain diagnosis, psychiatrists tend to disbelieve the diagnosis. A useful approach to combat this skepticism is to provide the treating psychiatrist with video recordings of the findings, can be more convincing than written reports”.
Taken from website http://www.emedicine.com/NEURO/topic403.htm

[meahmiller]

my husband was dx 3 times with pseudoseizures. he would turn red and then have a seizure. the ambulance was always over here to see about him. well we finally found a new dr and he put him on high blood pressure medicine which stopped the seizure right away.  Later a psychiatrist added some other meds for being bipolar 2 with mania. since he has been taking these meds he has not had a psuedoseizure. the last time he had one was 4-5 years ago. you are not alone. just try and investigate more. you might have an underlying blood pressure, anxiety problem.