Posted by Noa on May 8, 2000, at 17:05:26
In reply to thankyouthankyouthankyou (Re: S.P.-Epilepsy conn.), posted by SD on May 8, 2000, at 16:20:14
What do you all make of this?
One of my nephews, 22 y.o., has had epilepsy since around age 10 or 11. First symptoms were absence seizures, followed later by grand-mal, or full tonic-clonic seizures. He also reported other types of seizures in which he did not lose consciousness or have clonic spasms. He has always been quite shy and somewhat anxious. About a month ago, he emailed me to ask if I could help him figure out what was going on with him now. BTW, his seizure activity has become less frequent in the past 2 years or so, and he does not currently take anticonvulsants. Anyway, he now reports that when he is engaged in any lengthy conversations, after a while, he experiences a tremor in his voice and in his legs. He says he doesn't feel anxious about the situation, and it appears to be unrelated to the age or gender of the person with whom he is speaking. My advice to him was first to run it by his neurologist. I also told him that he might benefit from biofeedback training. But it isn't clear to me what is going on.
Another BTW is that my grandmother, his great-grandmother, suffered from Parkinsons and died at a relatively young age because of it. Her sister, my great-aunt, had a life-long seizure disorder of unknown origin (btw, she also had some mental impairment, perhaps mild retardation or severe learning disabilities, and at least in later life had psychiatric problems, such as paranoia--she had to keep moving because there were always people inside the walls, etc.-- and apparently had a lifelong imaginary friend).
Anyway, here is a case of a young man with epilepsy and chronic shyness who complains of tremors when in social situations, and has a positive family history of parkinsons and epilepsy. Any ideas?
poster:Noa
thread:31821
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20000508/msgs/32793.html