A seizure characterized by the presence of fear, worry, anxiety or panic as an expressed or observed emotion, at the outset of the seizure. Because of the unpleasant nature of these seizures, patients may also have anticipatory anxiety about having seizures. These seizures arise in mesial temporal networks, especially the amygdala. They can be distinguished from panic attacks, by the presence of impaired awareness, automatisms and other features of an epileptic seizure appearing in a stereotyped manner. They are also distinguished from a focal autonomic seizure with epigastric sensation, where the onset seizure feature is an autonomic epigastric sensation, and fear may be present as a secondary feature.
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