Does anyone know if temporal lobe epilepsy and schizophrenia can be had in the same person? Or is schizophrenia ruled out when one has epilepsy?
My husband has temporal lobe epilepsy and he gets schizo-like symptoms when he hasn’t had seizures for a while. He gets delusions and paranoia and it’s so scary for me as it triggers my own psychosis.
He was diagnosed with schizophrenia in the past but I don’t think he had it because the timing of his symptoms is when he hasn’t had seizures in a while. Plus I think epilepsy rules schizophrenia out. Is this true?
He takes antipsychotics for a few days then he’s ok again and the psychosis doesn’t come back unless he doesn’t get seizures for more than a week or two (he usually gets two or three a week). When he gets seizures it corrects the psychosis.
Does anyone have knowledge of this? My husband is currently in a delusional state of mind and it’s so stressful. I’m going to try get him to take his antipsychotic for a few days. And ask a neurologist about it.
I read about TLE years ago in a book. I remember in the hospital they did an EEG test on me to rule it out. EEG tests should find be able to detect seizure activity.
I often wonder about my own schiz diagnoses with TLE. I’ve had seizures before. I don’t know all the tests involved in TLE.
They might have newer tests now. When I was tested it was back in the 1990’s.
My Wife has epilepsy and has had hallucinations which are just as real as anyone with schizophrenia could experience. I gave her Haloperidol which got rid the hallucinations. She doesn’t have delusions or negative symptoms.
Some doctors give schizophrenics ECT, because they think that people with epilepsy are less likely to have schizophrenia.
ECT is still the most commonly used treatment for melancholic depression, which shares symptoms with the catatonic and negative symptoms of schizophrenia.
I think that someone can have both epilepsy and schizophrenia at the same time, otherwise they would give more schizophrenics treatments that cause seizures like they used to in the old mental asylums.