Michelle is a proud mother of three young children. Her son, Jaxon was first noticed to have some abnormalities in utero. Jaxon’s accurate diagnosis was extremely difficult to get. He ultimately got diagnosed when he was just 4 months old. However, he did have to undergo 2 brain biopsies, 30+ lab draws, 2 spinal taps and…
When an individual is newly diagnosed, no matter what the person’s age, the impact on the family system can be significant. If you are a parent of a child that has been diagnosed with a hypothalamic hamartoma, you may be seeking how to support your child. You may be seeking what is the recommended wording…
A diagnosis of a rare condition such as a hypothalamic hamartoma often results in multi-disciplinary care and the team required to support the individual throughout their lifespan may involve many specialties and costly therapies. Families worry about not only health insurance coverage for expensive medications and surgery, but missing work or having to give up…
A seizure characterized by the presence of anger, which may be accompanied by aggressive behavior. This is a rare seizure type, anger and aggression, if present, are mostly seen in the post-ictal period. This seizure type localizes to prefrontal or mesial temporal regions of the brain. Focal emotional seizures with anger are distinguished from tantrums and rage reactions by the absence…
A seizure characterized by the presence of a positive emotional experience with pleasure, bliss, joy, enhanced personal well-being, heightened self-awareness or ecstasy. This is a rare seizure type, seen in seizures arising in the anterior insular cortex.
A seizure characterized by the presence of stereotyped crying, this may be accompanied by lacrimation, sad facial expression, and sobbing. The subjective emotion of sadness may or may not be present. These seizures often accompany focal emotional seizures with laughing in the setting of a hypothalamic hamartoma. They can also occur in seizures arising in frontal…
A seizure characterized by bursts of laughter or giggling, usually without appropriate related emotion of happiness, and described as ‘mirthless’. This seizure type is characteristic of seizures arising in the hypothalamus, but can occur in seizures arising in the frontal or temporal lobes.
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…
A seizure characterized by alterations in mood or emotion, or the appearance of altered emotion without the subjective emotion, at seizure onset. These emotional seizures may occur with or without objective clinical signs of a seizure evident to the observer.
A technique for recording the behavior and the EEG of a patient simultaneously; changes in behavior can be correlated with changes in the EEG.