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Niravam
Sat, 09/09/2006 - 13:50Topic: Medication Issues
Hi,
I am pretty newly diagnosed with seizure disorder. My doctor has me on Topomax and Niravam, which is a medication for anxiety. Is this common? I definitely have had 2 very abnormal EEGs. Lots of electrical activity. But I alsmost think he thinks I am having psychogenic seizures due to anxiety. I wonder if anti-anxiety medications are prescribed routinely for seizure disordes?
Thanks,
Chris*
Comments
Re: As far as I know,
Submitted by Chris364 on Sat, 2006-09-09 - 21:39
That was so helpful and kind. Thank you. Good luck to you, as well.
Chris*
As far as I know,
Submitted by boudica on Sat, 2006-09-09 - 17:30
As far as I know, anti-anxiety medications are not routinely used to control seizures, but it is very common for people with any type of seizure disorder to suffer from unusual amounts of anxiety and/or depression, so many epilepsy patients are on antianxiety or antidepressant medications. I have epilepsy as well as Psychogenic, Non-Epileptic Seizures (PNES). At times, the PNES have been more disabling than the epileptic seizures, and recent studies have shown that the quality of life in people with PNES is statistically worse than the general epilepsy population. It is not uncommon for people with "abnormal" interictal (in between seizures) EEGs to have PNES even if they do NOT have epilepsy, just as it is common for people with epilepsy to have normal interictal EEGs. No one can make a definitive diagnosis of PNES without recording a video EEG during a seizure event, and even then, you must rely on response to therapy (whether medication or psychotherapy) to be confident about a diagnosis. It is also not unheard of for people with epilepsy to also have PNES, and it can be very confusing to delineate which are epileptic seizures and which are PNES. It is important to have both a neurologist and a psychologist/psychiatrist whenever these two diagnoses are suspected. epilepsy.com has some very well-informed, authoritative articles on PNES. There are also many good articles on epilepsy and PNES out there on the web, but there is also a lot of misinformation about PNES out there, and some of it can be extremely misleading and emotionally harmful. I hope you are doing well, and I wish you good luck in your research and, most of all, in overcoming your seizures!