Nancy Melucci asked:
"...... I thought I would
re-inquire about my questions regarding any actual difference between
"physical" and "emotional" seizures. I just wanted to confirm that there is
no such thing as an emotional seizure, and give the student a little
information on how seizures are treated/managed........"Another student
inquired about "sleeptalking" and I also wanted to find out
if that phenonmenon was associated with a particular stage of sleep, any
other information would be appreciated.
You are correct. A seizure is a seizure (to praraphrase Gertrude Stein).
Some may be triggered by strong emotion, some by flashing lights but the
onset of most is idiopathic. Fortunately these days there are many
excellent meds and most people with epilepsy can can have good enough
control that they can drive and do everything else as long as they take
their meds. Of course, many can't get complete control like that but very
good control is still possible. Whenever I discuss seizures I am acutely
aware that one or more of my students have probably been diagnosed witrh
seizure disorder so I go out of my way to make these points. This is
especially important when talking about the "weird" cases such as H.M.,
split brains and others in which surgery was required. Most of those
cases occurred when we had little more than bromides, phenobarbitol and
maybe Dilantin. Today we have dozens of good meds so surgery is much less
common. And when surgery is necessary, it's much safer than it was in the
days of Wilder Penfield.
As for sleep talking: my understanding is that occurs equally in all stages
of sleep. There are descending fibers from the pontine region of the
midbrain that effectively inhinit the spinal motor neurons and paralize the
skeletal muscles during REM sleep. ie., REM or Dream Paralysis. But
these fibers do not inhibit the motor neurons of the cranial nerves. This
means that although sleep walking cannot occur in REM and is a purely
non-rem (stage 3 & 4) penomenon, sleep talking can occur in any stage.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D. Office (610)436-3151
Professor of Psychology Home (610)363-1939
West Chester University FAX (610)436-2846
West Chester, PA 19383 [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Peoples Building Rm 44 www.wcupa.edu
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Husband, father, biopsychologist, herpetoculturist and bluegrass
fiddler........... not necessarily in order of importance.
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