Specializing in seizures and epilepsy, neurologist Diego Tovar-Quiroga, MD explains that often people are bewildered by symptoms that can affect mental health. He provides ways to successfully recognize and treat this brain disorder.

Diego completed medical school in Bogotá, Colombia and his

fellowship at the Mayo Clinic. He is a certified neurologist at Austin Epilepsy

Care Center and is dedicated to treating and diagnosing people with seizures

and epilepsy.

➤RESOURCES

Austin Epilepsy Care Center: http://www.austinepilepsy.com

Epilepsy Foundation: 1-800-332-1000

National Association of Epilepsy Centers:

https://www.naec-epilepsy.org

Free Worksheet: https://www.YourTruthRevealed.com

➤SUMMARY

What happens neurologically in the brain during a seizure?

* A seizure is a sudden, uncontrolled electrical disturbance in

the brain. It can cause changes in your behavior, movements, feelings, and

levels of consciousness.

* Seizures can be provoked by many different factors. They’re

classified as either epileptic or non-epileptic seizures.

* Epileptic seizures – dysfunction of the electrical networks in

the brain.

* Non-epileptic seizures – enhanced neural networks in the

brain.

* Because these two different types of events can look alike,

sometimes people get the wrong diagnosis and are treated wrongly for decades.

How do you discovery the correct diagnosis?

* The diagnosis is confirmed by capturing the events with

electroencephalogram (EEG), ideally with simultaneous video recording. This

test allows us to determine if there is abnormal electrical activity in the

brain at the time of the event, which is the hallmark of epileptic seizures.

* When patients have non epileptic seizures, the majority of the

times there is a pain syndrome that is not well controlled.

* Part of my role is to guide the patient to see the correlation

and explore the treatment options.

How might someone who has seizures experience an impact on their

mental health?

* Epileptic seizures are a brain malfunction, and so are major

depression, anxiety disorders, and psychoses. Although epilepsy is not a

psychiatric disorder, its psychiatric dimension is important for treatment and

research.

* The symptoms of focal seizures, especially, can be mistaken —

by the patient or the doctor — for psychiatric symptoms, especially panic

attacks, flashback memories, or dissociative experiences (involving, for

example, altered consciousness or a feeling of unreality).

* About a third of people with focal seizures also suffer from

anxiety disorders, especially agoraphobia. But the psychiatric disorder most

notoriously associated with epilepsy is depression. As many as a third of

people with epilepsy suffer from periodic depression, and depression is 4–7

times more frequent than average among them.

* Seizures themselves can cause lasting changes in mood and

thinking.

* A condition called interictal dysphoric disorder occurs in

some patients with epilepsy. The definition includes eight symptoms, of which

the patient must have at least three: depression, lack of energy, pain,

irritability, anxiety, fear, and, oddly, euphoria.

How does culture impact how seizures are treated?

* All cultures have health beliefs to explain what the cause of

a disease is, how it should be treated or cured, and who should be involved in

this process.