Catamenial Epilepsy
By: Sofia Arreguin Catamenial Epilepsy Many individuals assigned female at birth struggle with a form of ‘pharmacoresistant epilepsy,’ a type of epilepsy that is inadequately managed by medication. Affecting around 10% to 70% of women, this form of epilepsyincludes an increased frequency of seizures relative to their menstrual cycle. Known as catamenial epilepsy, this change […]
Factitious Disorder
By: Catherine Joachin What is factitious disorder? Factitious disorder, commonly known as Munchausen syndrome, is a mental disorder in which a person purposefully feigns or exaggerates an illness without clear external motivation to do so (Cleveland Clinic, 2024). This behavior is motivated by a psychological need to assume the role of a sick person. By […]
Epilepsy Syndromes in Infancy
By: Catherine Joachin What are infantile epilepsy syndromes? Infantile-onset epilepsy syndromes refer to seizure disorders with symptoms appearing from birth to within 1 year of life. These conditions are identified by similarities in seizure types, electroencephalographic results and developmental history (NYU Langone Health, 2024). They include infantile spasms, Dravet syndrome, Ohtahara syndrome, myoclonic epilepsies of […]
Jacksonian Seizures
By: Shaun Kim What are Jacksonian Seizures? Jacksonian seizures, also known as focal motor seizures, are a type of partial seizure that originates in a localized area of the brain. Jacksonian seizures are a common symptom of epilepsy, a neurological disorder characterized by recurrent seizures. In the case of Jacksonian seizures, abnormal electrical activity originates […]
Autoimmune Epilepsy
By: Natalie L. Boehm, MBA, RBLP-T What is autoimmune epilepsy? Autoimmune epilepsy is a group of epilepsies mediated by all kinds of autoimmune reactions (Jang et. al., 2020). There are a number of autoimmune conditions that lead to the individual having seizure activity. Autoimmune epilepsy also includes febrile illness-related refractory seizures (FIRES), new-onset refractory status […]
Pseudoseizures
By: Nicholas Parekh What are Pseudoseizures? Pseudoseizures are one of the manifestations of conversion disorder, a psychiatric condition where a patient experiences neurological symptoms such as paralysis without an actual cause. Conversion disorder usually occurs after a highly stressful or traumatic event, and a person is at higher risk if they have a dissociative or […]
Catamenial Epilepsy
By: Mugdha Dip What is Catamenial Epilepsy? Catamenial Epilepsy can be described as menstrual seizures that are linked with women’s menstrual cycle and hormone levels in the body. It is found that at least three patterns of catamenial seizure occur. The pattern includes perimenstrual, periovulatory in ovulatory processes, and the entire luteal phase in anovulatory […]
Myoclonic Epilepsy: Understanding the Etiology, Types, and Treatment
By: Nazneen Khan Introduction Epilepsy is defined as a disorder characterized by two or more seizures which occur twenty-four hours apart. Myoclonic epilepsy is a generalized epilepsy where all parts of the brain show abnormal electrical activities. This type of epilepsy presents short, rapid, and uncontrollable muscle jerks and rhythmic contractions which occur more than […]
Abdominal Epilepsy: an often misdiagnosed cause of abdominal pain
By: Nicholas Parekh What is abdominal epilepsy? Abdominal epilepsy is a rare form of temporal lobe epilepsy that often manifests as episodes of abdominal pain, nausea, and vomiting followed by loss of consciousness or postictal sleepiness and mostly affects children. Due to the primary symptoms of abdominal pain and vomiting being relatively common in many […]
Reflex Epilepsy
By: Natalie L. Boehm, MBA, RBLP-T What is Reflex Epilepsy? Reflex epilepsy (RE) is defined as a specific syndrome in which all epileptic seizures are precipitated by sensory stimuli (Hanif and Musick, 2021). Reflex seizures can take a variety of forms, comprising either general or focal onset, with or without secondary generalization (Hanif and Musick, […]