Many wonder if intense anxiety attacks can lead to seizures. Understanding the distinct nature of anxiety attacks, epileptic seizures, and psychogenic non-epileptic seizures is important, as their relationship can be complex.
Anxiety Attacks and Seizures: A Clear Distinction
Anxiety attacks, often called panic attacks, do not directly cause epileptic seizures. Epileptic seizures are neurological events resulting from abnormal electrical activity in the brain. These are distinct physiological processes from the body’s response to anxiety.
Anxiety attack symptoms can sometimes mimic those of a seizure, causing confusion. These may include intense fear, a pounding heart, shortness of breath, trembling, sweating, dizziness, feelings of unreality or detachment, and chest pain. Hyperventilation, common during panic attacks, can even trigger an epileptic seizure in some individuals with epilepsy. Despite these overlapping manifestations, their underlying mechanisms remain fundamentally different.
Understanding Psychogenic Non-Epileptic Seizures
Psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (PNES) appear similar to epileptic seizures but are not caused by abnormal brain electrical activity. Instead, PNES manifest from psychological distress, often stemming from underlying psychiatric conditions or traumatic experiences. While anxiety attacks are not PNES, chronic or severe anxiety and stress can trigger PNES in vulnerable individuals.
PNES episodes are involuntary and represent the body’s physical reaction to overwhelming emotional or psychological stress. Common features that help differentiate them from epileptic seizures include:
Asynchronous limb movements
Eye closure during the event
Side-to-side head movements
Crying or emotional content
PNES also tend to last longer than most epileptic seizures, which typically resolve within two minutes.
Differentiating Symptoms and Seeking Professional Guidance
Observing event characteristics provides clues, but a professional medical evaluation is crucial for accurate diagnosis. Key differences include the type and synchronicity of movements, level of consciousness, and episode duration. For instance, PNES convulsive movements may be less organized than in epileptic seizures, and individuals might retain some responsiveness or memory.
Anyone experiencing new or unexplained seizure-like events should seek immediate medical attention. A healthcare professional, typically a neurologist, will conduct a thorough medical history, physical examination, and may order diagnostic tests.
An electroencephalogram (EEG), which records brain electrical activity, is a primary tool to diagnose epileptic seizures by detecting abnormal electrical patterns. For PNES, video-EEG monitoring is considered the gold standard, as it records both the physical event and confirms the absence of epileptic brain activity. A psychological evaluation is also a standard part of the diagnostic process for PNES, helping to identify underlying psychological factors. Managing underlying anxiety and psychological distress is important for overall well-being and can help reduce PNES frequency.