Seizures and Dementia

IrishPat1124

I was wondering if anyone had experience with their LO and seizures. My husband experienced the first one, that I noticed in June while we were in the car.  He was staring, stiff, hands clenched and became incontinent. We went to the emergency room at Penn and they put him on 750mg Keppra 2xdaily. He has declined since that incident and has been vocalizing comments at the television.   I have a neurologist appointment  this week to discuss whether or not Keppra  dosage needs adjusting. It’s my understanding that  seizures are common with dementia.  If you’ve had experience did they seem to return to their “new normal” or was the decline permanent?

DrinaJGB

My DH experienced a grand mal seizure at the beginning of his brain injury--which left him in a coma 3 days later and for weeks. There was constant monitoring of an EEG during that time. His story is different from others here, but the outcome remains the same with memory loss and executive functioning and personality changes--all due to a virus.

  He was put on Keppra for several months and was monitored. He was rather a zombie on that drug, but he was also greatly and profoundly impaired due to the massive brain injury. A year later he had to go back into ICU due to a life-threatening medication reaction given to him in neuro rehab, and a 24 hour EEG was done several times during that 9 day ICU stay-- showing no seizures. He had been weaned off Keppra over several months. It is always a good and safe idea to have EEG performed--hopefully a 24 hour one.

Lcpsurry

My husband has had 2 seizures during the night in the past month. They were brief and the next day he was just tired, didn’t even know they happened. He had 2 seizures when he was younger and had pneumonia. I am very familiar with seizures since my neice has had them since birth. Some have lasted an hour or more, in hospital for a week at a time for them. So ones like my husband had don’t scare me.

But if he had a couple one right after the other or if they lasted longer I would call 911.

DrinaJGB

Some seizures actually occur while asleep, and others are small and last only a few seconds-so are best picked up by an EEG. The more a person has seizures which are undiagnosed/untreated, the more damage is done to the brain.

CS 63

My HWD, 56 years old, mid to late stage,   experienced 7 seizures in 14 days starting last May.  They were so mild that I thought they were just dizzy spells until I described them to my sister who is a nurse.  He would tell me he's not feeling well, lay down on the floor or bed whichever was closest, his arms would 'flap' but he was conscious and able to have a conversation with me although it was slower than usual and they only lasted maybe 15 minutes.  The last ones were one after another and resulted in an ER visit where he was prescribed Keppra 2x per day.  He hadn'T had another until a week ago Monday.   It didn't play out the same as the others, perhaps because he was on keppra but he layed on the floor for more than an hour with his brain unable to tell his body what to do.  He came around and was able to function ok for,the rest of the day, although he was more confused than normal.  From Monday to Thursday he was ok but cognitively worse, didn't recognize his house or me, his wife, at times.  He had an episode of agression/anger Thursday evening and ended up in the ER again.   He is now in the mental health icu unit while they try to get his meds under control.  They are thinking that the Monday episode was a seizure that resulted in Delirium and it's a wait and see how he is when they stabilize him with the new meds.  I have been told that seizures can be part of the progression and it makes sense when you think about the deterioration of the brain and connections.