Posted by S.D. Guy on May 1, 2000, at 4:44:43
There seems to be nothing written about a biological connection between epilepsy and social phobia.
Have you heard of anything like this?There are journal articles that talk about socialization problems in people with epilepsy, but they all seem to think it's always psychological effects of the experience of living with epilepsy.
The best example may be this article from 1999 in the journal Seizure:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=10486296&dopt=Abstract
I think this is a clue that is being overlooked. The first and more obvious clue for me was that benzodiazepine anticonvulsants (e.g. clonazepam) can treat social phobia.Clobazam is supposedly a similar benzo without as much cognitive side effects - ever take it for social anxiety?
Recently, non-benzo anticonvulsants with GABA-ergic effects, such as gabapentin, pregabalin and vigabatrin may have been suggested or used for social phobia.
I know these are used for bipolar disorder, but has anyone been prescribed any of these for social phobia?
My father began having what were probably Complex Partial Seizures when he was a little older than me. I just found out that my brother, who is 2 years oldr than me, had a grand mal seizure recently with no prior history. We are all 3 of us shy but in my case it is crippling full-on social phobia.
I'm not sure yet what to do with this information. I haven't had any seizures myself so I guess consulting a neurologist would be premature, but a neurologist might have more knowledge of all the anticonvulsant drugs. It's likely to be weeks before I can hear from my pdoc again. I just quit Paxil after it made me puke 2 nights in a row on an extra-low starting dose of 10mg. Normally I'd stick it out longer but I can't really handle alot of disruptive sideFX right now. Clonazepam was next on the list anyway and with this epilepsy connection dawning on me I feel it, or maybe some other GABA-affecting med, is the best hope.
peace and health
poster:S.D. Guy
thread:31821
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20000429/msgs/31821.html