90 This may occur shortly after a seizure, or after a return to normal mental status. One case report by So et al demonstrated that postictal psychosis is not necessarily an “epileptic equivalent” of the limbic system.110 During an admission for epilepsy surgery, their patients, were Implanted with AP24534 molecular weight electrodes, and after nine complex partial seizures over several days, followed by a 9-hour lucid interval, psychosis appeared. Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical Recording showed frequent bitemporal, independent, epileptiform discharges over the mesial limbic structures, but without electrographic seizures.110 Logsdail and Toon suggest criteria to distinguish postictal psychiatric disturbances and other syndromes (Table II).90 Conclusion
Delirium and epilepsy may be difficult to differentiate, and there may be considerable overlap between the two states. One imitates the other because of the commonly fluctuating level of consciousness, abnormal behaviors, and subtle motor manifestations. ASE and CPSE can be mistaken for delirium, encephalopathy, or psychiatric diseases
( Table V). 98 Seizures Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical may present with ictal, interictal, or postictal delirium. Many of the conditions resulting in delirium may also induce seizures, including hepatic and renal failure, electrolyte Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical and metabolic abnormalities, drug intoxications, intracranial infections, and occasionally lateralized acute cerebrovascular events. In some overtreated patients Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical with epilepsy, there may be intoxication with anticonvulsants and delirium. Other patients may have both delirium and epilepsy Moreover, borderline states between the two have been delineated. There is an increasing understanding of the different nonconvulsive states and borderline ictal states that continue to evade diagnosis and appropriate treatment in the
absence of an EEG. Table V. Clinical examples in which the diagnosis of nonconvulsive status epilepticus (NCSE) was missed or delayed according to experience at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, Baltimore, Md. Adapted from reference 98: Kaplan PW. Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical Behavioral manifestations of … Some broad differences, aminophylline albeit with exceptions, can be noted. Delirium typically begins more gradually and persists longer than seizures, or even NCSE. Most patients with NCSE have a prior history of seizures, but a recently delineated entity of de novo NCSE in the elderly is being increasingly recognized.111 Aside from medication or toxic screening of blood and urine, the single most helpful test is EEG, but interpretation may be problematic. At one end of the spectrum, clear electrographic epileptiform activity in a rapid waxing and waning pattern suggests seizures, but certain metabolic and particularly toxic encephalopathies may also have sharply contoured morphologies on EEG, such as triphasic waves, which may strongly resemble – or indeed be indistinguishable from- electrographic seizures.