Epilepsy or Brain Tumor?
The initial reports that CJ Roberts was rushed to a hospital in Maine for a "fall" turn out, unsurprisingly, to be a half truth. He was rushed to a hospital because he had a seizure, causing him to fall and sustain a few minor injuries. This is his second such seizure. Experts interviewed for the Times' story narrowed the possibilities to two: late onset epilepsy (about 1% of the US population has the disorder) or a brain tumor. As one neurologist said, "[m]ost neurologists would start a patient like [Roberts] on one of a number of antiseizure drugs," because with such drugs the "seizures can be controlled." He did also point out, though, that "a very small number cannot be. People who have them are advised not to drive, to avoid heights and not to swim alone."
posted by Jamison Colburn @ 10:37 AM
4 Comments:
At 4:02 PM,
PG said…
Hammontree? Anyone?
At 12:56 AM,
Adam P. said…
This whole thing shows the stupidity of asking medical experts to comment on matters not related to their actual patients (reminiscent of Sen. Frist's diagnosis of Terri Schiavo and Sanjay Gupta's diagnoses of anyone).
"Seizures" are very hard to diagnose, because often, the doctors doing the diagnosis have not seen anything. Some people may describe passing out as a seizure, others may describe spasms as a seizure.
The clinical definition of a seizure disorder may call this "epilepsy", but 2 seizures in 15 years is nothing to flip out about.
His last seizure was in 1993. Seizures can be stress-induced. Considering what John Roberts has had happen in his life between 1993 and now, his predisposition towards seizures must have a very high stress trigger.
For what its worth, ive had one seizure in the past 9 years. So here's hoping I dont have a sympathy one for JRs sake.
At 8:08 AM,
Jamison Colburn said…
adam p.'s point is well taken, although I gather the "two seizure rule" is more easily applied than the complex diagnostic work that Bill Frist purported to do on Schiavo from a video. Assuming the spokesperson got the "seizure" diagnosis correct this time, the CJ's first one is not in doubt from what I've read. The Senate was briefed on it during his hearings and Senators were told it wasn't a concern (in part, I think, because he'd only had one). I should add, BTW, that, contrary to some email I got suggesting I was wishing the CJ ill, this post was just to spark discussion. I hope for the Roberts family's sake that his condition is just a mild case of epilepsy and that medication is fully effective.
At 8:57 AM,
egarber said…
I know what Adam P means, but clearly, we can all learn from medical experts who speak generally about what something *might* mean, or how such symptoms are typically diagnosed in the general population.
Of course, this doesn't mean it's appropriate to specifically declare that JR is X% likely to have a brain tumor. But (imo) there's nothing wrong with educating the public generally about what seizures can portend.
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