Abstracts

Some patients whose seizures routinely is preceded by an aura claim they are able at times to delay or abort the seizure. It is unclear if this subjective experience is real or if the experience somehow is caused by the seizure itself. We wanted to explore if there is any relationship between this claim and seizure type, the presumed seizure focus and the aura., After approval by IRB was obtained patients answered a questionnaire in the presence of the doctor and their charts were reviewed. Only patients with verified epilepsy were included and all had to have a reliable aura. We correlated the claim of influence over seizures with the epileptic focus according to EEG and/or brain MRI, duration and quality of aura and presence of generalized tonic-clonic seizures using Chi Square., 65 patients were included. Mean age was 45 years (range 20 to 70) of which 20 were males. 28 patients (43%) reported that they some times could delay or abort seizures voluntarily. The methods included directing the thought content (20 patients), moving the body (16 patients) or stimulating the body (14 patients). More patients who reported some influence had extratemporal focus ( p [lt] 0.001). No correlation was found with type and duration of aura or presence of generalized tonic clonic seizures., A substantial portion of patients who have seizures with aura claim they are able to influence the progression of their seizures. This claim was more common among patients with extratemporal focus. A possible explanation could be that afferent inputs into the cerebral cortex exert an inhibitory effect thereby delaying the propagation of an exitatory epileptic focus. Further research may provide insight into the mechanisms that may underlie this phenomenon.,