Non-Epileptic Spells

Ever since coming back from Mayo Clinic, I've spent some time researching my diagnosis on the internet. I found this to be some interesting info and thought I would share it for any of you who may be interested as well.

This is a link to a website that lists frequently asked questions about the diagnosis. I found it to be very helpful. http://health.ucsd.edu/specialties/epilepsy/nonepileptic/ Alright even though, I just gave you the link I wanted to talk about one of my favorite parts on that site. It is the section where it discusses the question, "Is is all just in my head?" I loved the response to this question. Basically it says that this disease is "just in my head" just like heart disease is "just in your chest" or an appendicitis is "just in your stomach". True this disease might "just be in my head" but it is a real and serious disease. Looking at it in this context has truly helped me!

The following information is from a training form I found online by Dr. Cascino from Mayo Clinic. He is one of the doctors that was on the Nuerological team I saw when I was there. I love it because it really shows that I am not alone in this disorder, a lot of people out there suffer from it as well.

"A previous study performed at Mayo Clinic Rochester indicated that a significant number of adult patients evaluated for spells, query epilepsy, are experiencing non-epileptic spells. A consecutive series of 274 patients were admitted to the inpatient epilepsy-monitoring unit between 1993 and 1997 for unprovoked and stereotypic spells. The pathophysiology underlying the clinical episodes in these individuals could not be determined based on an outpatient evaluation that included a neurological history-examination, MRI head, and routine EEG recording. Most patients referred for recurrent spells were receiving or had received antiepileptic drug therapy. The electroclinical correlation during the video-EEG monitoring was required for appropriate diagnostic classification. Fifty-five percent of patients were experiencing non-epileptic spells. Approximately 36% of patients were determined to have seizure disorders. A combination of seizures and non-epileptic spells occurred in 5.5% patients."

Anyway, just a bit of the information I found during my research...sorry if you found it too boring!