How can you differentiate ADD related to epilepsy (Petit Mal) from core ADHD.

*Personality / brain type
*Response to medication
*Relationship to exercise, sleep, diet, stress
*Motoric issues
*Other problems like LDs

Is there a correlation with NVLD?

ADD is here roughly defined as attention problems with a biological cause.
Core ADHD is the typical ADD person having inherited the condition, with impulsivity problems and often responding to stimulant medication.

Thanks
Valentine

Temporal Lobe Epilepsy is known to cause many POTENTIAL problems.

These include attention, moods, learning, impulsivity, agitation, violent outbursts, suspiciousness, symptoms that look like personality disorder.

The temporal lobe is too big, however, to reduce things down as you are asking, however. (e.g. reductionism)

There are many places in the lobe for lesions. Each area of lesion can cause different symptoms/deficits.

What you are asking for is a whole textbook chapter... in temporal lobe neuropsychology.
Neuropsych is the study of brain damage. (As you likely know, epilepsy comes from brain damage foci causing neuronal kindling -->seizures.)

ADD is here roughly defined as attention problems with a biological cause.



Reading this again.

I don't understand: All mental malfunctioning has a biological cause.

I don't know that there is a way to differentiate ADHD related to epilepsy and adhd without epilepsy.

I was diagnosed with epilepsy as a child. I had thought that I outgrew my epilepsy like the doctors said I probably would. In recent years the possibility that some of my problems are related to epilepsy has arisen. The plain fact is that I may have complex partial seizures from time to time. Many tests havebeen run snd the doctors can't confirm or deny the presence of epilepsy in my case.

The percentage of people with adhd or autism spectrum disorders with adhd is higher than the general population.... but remember disorders often have comorbidities...


In any case, I don't know if enough is known about epilepy or ADHD to differentiate between adhd/epilepsy and adhd without epilepsy. The two may be the same or may be different. I'd like to know the answer to that question myself...

ME :D


How can you differentiate ADD related to epilepsy (Petit Mal) from core ADHD.

*Personality / brain type
*Response to medication
*Relationship to exercise, sleep, diet, stress
*Motoric issues
*Other problems like LDs

Is there a correlation with NVLD?

ADD is here roughly defined as attention problems with a biological cause.
Core ADHD is the typical ADD person having inherited the condition, with impulsivity problems and often responding to stimulant medication.

Thanks
Valentine

I think one Big difference is that when people with AD/HD daydream they realize they have been daydreaming.

ADD is here roughly defined as attention problems with a biological cause.

I don't understand: All mental malfunctioning has a biological cause.
[/i]
I mean it is not caused by depression, poor parrenting, "psychological reasons" etc.

The temporal lobe is too big, however, to reduce things down as you are asking, however. (e.g. reductionism)

I am not reducing anything - I just forgot "for example".




What you are asking for is a whole textbook chapter... in temporal lobe neuropsychology.

To be more precise what i am asking for is indications that ADD issues might be caused by weak unknown Epilepsy (This is what a shrink indicated to me once), and indicators that i might have weak epilepsy.

I dont think this should be impossible.

I was wired with a portable recording EEG for 3 days and it showed no sign of epilepsy. The neurologist who examined me said that he still could not rule out epilepsy because it could be so deep inside the brain that it is hard (or impossible) to detect with an EEG.

The issue that I have is loss of memory for periods of a few seconds. It is literally as though I am shot into the future... One moment I am there doing my thing and the next thing I know time seems to have jumped forward by several seconds. It seems to happen fairly regularly and I think that I usually do not notice it. The times that I do notice it are infrequent, but are very obvious to me. It's always the same way every time.... ZAP and I'm...a few seconds into the future.... This does not involve a loss of consciousness apparently because I never fall down and I never wreck my car. I'm aparently lucid, but don't recall a thing.

I've interpreted it as a complex partial seizure that wipes my memory of the event after I have the seizure. This kind of thing is not unusual if you have complex partial seizures. God only knows what it is. The doctors sure don't.

People who have had a grand mal seizure are sometimes a bit scattered or confused for up to hours following a seizure. I suppose that could be mistaken for adhd....but for the obvious presence of a major seizure.

Also, people with epilepsy sometimes develop increasing problems with attention and memory over a period of many years. The clue here is that adhd meds probably won't make it any better and some add meds might even make having seizures more likely. Also,whike people with adhd complain about their memory, their memory is typically quite good. Memory issues caused by epilepsy are real memory issues and I'd guess that it would turn up in a neuropsych evaluation.

ADHD is commonly cormorbid with many neurological and neurobiological conditions. It should not be such a surprise that ADHD and epilepsy occur together... as do epilepsy and autism and adhd and autism.

Wiring problems in the brain and problems with brain chemistry are often not in just one area so comorbid conditions do occur.

It is likely not so much that one condition causes the other, but that the two really do occur together.

just my two-cents...
Me :D


I am not reducing anything - I just forgot "for example".




To be more precise what i am asking for is indications that ADD issues might be caused by weak unknown Epilepsy (This is what a shrink indicated to me once), and indicators that i might have weak epilepsy.

I dont think this should be impossible.
[I]

EEG with 24 hr Observation Cameras differentiate it. Seen that used to weed things out a few times.

The EEG used is an EVOKED POTENTIALS eeg.

As you likely know, flashing lights or other stim can induce electrical overactivity in the brain (induce a seizure).

re: 6
I don't know what you mean by "psychological causes". Do you mean faking? Do you mean "emotional issues"? Emotional issues are neurological (2nd level of the triune brain).

"...poor parenting, "psychological reasons" etc."

These all change the brain's biology (and anatomy/structure): In fact, they change it INCREDIBLY so. They can grossly influence dendritic arborization, the size of the hippocampus, the activity in the temporal lobe, etc. etc.

It is called Interpersonal Neurobiology.

People need to stop dividing the brain from the body.

Can't say about 'weak unknown epilepsy'.

Have never heard of that kind of epilepsy.

(However there are many more types than just Grand Mal and Petit Mal !! e.g. febrile or psychomotor seizures -- now that's an strange one to observe.)

Epilepsy is known to affect memory, vigilance and learning and mood and personality states. People can do things in the postictal phase that the would not normally do. (Like become violent; act like a jerk, etc. seen that a bit.)

When people have Epilepsy, REMEMBER: they have a damaged brain. (That is what the seizure-generating FOCI is -- an area of damage, or "lesion".)

There are also MANY other conditions for being spacey too, besides ADD and Epilepsy.