Module Two Burkhart Center Home TTU Special Education Module One Module Three

Seizure Activity and the Autism Spectrum

 

Although 3 out of 4 individuals on the spectrum are not effected by seizures, individuals, parents, and professionals benefit from being aware of the possible occurrence of seizure activity. Reinhold, Molloy, & Manning-Courtney (2005) found abnormal EEG results in 27% of students evaluated for ASDs. Kagan-Kushnir, Roberts, & Snead (2005) gave the parameters at between 20% and 30% of individuals on the spectrum having a seizure disorder. Miles, Takahashi, Bagby, Sahota, Vaslow, Wang, Hillman, and Farmer (2005) found that individuals on the spectrum could be separated into subtypes, essential autism (including Asperger's and High-Functioning Autism diagnoses) and complex autism (including moderate and severe autistic diagnoses). Of those with essential autism only 30% were found to have abnormal EEGs (EEGs measure brain patterns and can locate seizure activity) while those noted as having complex autism experienced a 46% rate of having an abnormal EEG (Miles, et al., 2005).

A good website describing seizures is at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS).

Types of Seizures

• Focal seizures occur in just one part of the brain

  • Simple focal seizure "the person will remain conscious but experience unusual feelings or sensations that can take many forms. The person may experience sudden and unexplainable feelings of joy, anger, sadness, or nausea. He or she also may hear, smell, taste, see, or feel things that are not real" (NINDS).

  • Complex focal seizure "the person has a change in or loss of consciousness. His or her consciousness may be altered, producing a dreamlike experience. People having a complex focal seizure may display strange, repetitious bahviors such as blinks, twitches, mouth movements, or even walking in a circle. ... Patients may also continue activities they started before the seizure began, such as washing dishes in a repetitive, unproductive fashion. These seizures usually last just a few seconds" (NINDS).

• Generalized seizures occur on both sides of the brain

  • Absence seizures - where the individual is staring off into space, this can include twitching or jerking muscles. This type of seizure used to be known as petit mal seizures. (NINDS)

  • Tonic seizures - seizures that cause the body to stiffen

  • Clonic seizures - "cause repeated jerking movements of muscles on both sides of the body" (NINDS).

  • Myoclonic seizures - "cause jerks or twitches of the upper body, arms, or legs" (NINDS).

  • Atonic seizures - "cause a loss of normal muscle tone. The affected person will fall down or may drop his or her head involuntarily" (NINDS).

  • Tonic-clonic seizures - "cause a mixture of symptoms, including stiffening of the body and repeated jerks of the arms and/or legs as well as loss of consciousness" (NINDS). This form of seizure was once known as grand mal seizures (NINDS

References

Kagan-Kushnir, T.; Roberts, S. W.; & Snead, O. C. 3rd. (2005). Screening electroencephalograms in autism spectrum disorders: evidence-based guideline. Journal of child neurology 20(3), pp. 197-206.

Miles, J. H.; Takahashi, T. N.; Bagby, S.; Sahota, P. K.; Vaslow, D. F.; Wang, C. H.; Hillman, R. E.; & Farmer, J. E. (2005). Essential versus complex autism: definition of fundamental prognostic subtypes. American journal of medical genetics Part A 135(2), pp. 171-180.

Reinhold, J. A.; Molloy, C. A.; & Manning-Courtney, P. (2005). Electroencephalogram abnormalities in children with autism spectrum disorders. The Journal of neuroscience nursing: Journal of the American Association of Neuroscience Nurses 37(3), pp. 136-138.

 

2005 Burkhart Center for Autism Education & Research