Many patients with
seizures are often misdiagnosed, according to a new report from scientists at
Johns Hopkins.
They suggest that based on their own observations, one-third of patients
admitted to the establishment's epilepsy monitoring unit
actually have stress-related conditions and not true epilepsy – and this figure
is rising.
"These patients behave as if they have an organic brain disease, but they
don't and it turns out that their life stresses weren't all that high, but
they're very sensitive to stress," said Jason Brandt, the study's senior
investigator and professor of psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins.
Researchers state that they conducted the study to try to ascertain the reasons
some people were more susceptible to stress-related seizures than others.
Although they are still unclear of the biological reasons, they did observe
that when these patients were told that they did not have epilepsy many of
their symptoms became less severe.
© Adfero Ltd
Epilepsy treatment news: 12 April 2012
