Yesterday my husband who's in long term care had 2 seizures. He has no history of seizures. They think it might be epilepsy. The nurse & I witnessed the 2nd seizure. The doctor has been notified & I'll see what she says.
According to what I just read, epileptic seizures occur in patients with dementia at a higher rate than among healthy elderly individuals. In patients with Alzheimer approx. 10 - 20% have a least 1 unprovoked seizure & it usually occurs in the later stages Has anyone else experienced that?
My husband hasn't but many here have a spouse who has. I don't know if you want to call it epilepsy but I would say as parts of the brain is destroyed it is not surprising that they could happen.
Epilepsy is just another name for seizure disorder. And, yes, seizures are a symptom of progressive dementia.
My husband's first symptoms of AD were seizures. He was on anti-seizure medication for several years, but we stopped it because he was becoming too unsteady on his feet and seemed to be seizure-free. Later and unbeknowst to me, he started having almost constant, although a different type of seizures. The sad thing is that the hospice nurses who came to the facility didn't recognized them as seizures and not until he was admitted did better nurses correctly diagnosis and immediately treat the seizure activity. When the terminal seizures were treated, his suffering lessened considerably.
My husband had one seizure that I know of--just seemed to lose consciousness and have random, kind of flopping body movements for maybe 30 seconds. He had no other history of seizure disorder, and the emergency room didn't seem very concerned. (Terrible emergency room--I reported them to the ombudsman, which resulted in the re-training of the entire staff. But that's a different story.) I agree with Charlotte--don't think I would call it epilepsy, which AFAIK is a discrete diagnosis--but with all the brain damage that Alzheimers does, the patient is going to be a neurological train wreck.
Elizabeth - what you describe is how my sister was when she had her TIAs. Your last part is so true: but with all the brain damage that Alzheimers does, the patient is going to be a neurological train wreck
Nicky, is your husband on anti-psychotic medication? My husband had several serious seizures when they upped his anti-psychotics. After that the dr put him on anti-seizure medication, and they diminished. Once the anti-psychotics were discontinued, he had no more full seizures, only occasional 'jerks', I think from the Alzheimer's itself. Sorry, I am usually a "lurker", but I wanted to chime in on this. My husband has been in Long Term Care for 6 years now, but I have learned incredibly much from you all on this site. I was prepared for so much, from handling incontinence to handling the fact that he did not recognize me any more as his wife. This is the best resource available for our situation! Thank you all!!!