Anyone diagnosed with SEIZURE DISORDER & PD ?

[par004]

I was diagnosed with Epilepsy/Seizure disorder (SD) at age 15 and then PD at age 57 (now 68). I've been on Dilantin (phenytoin) since dx of SD. Just this week I found a medical website describing SD and the use of Rx phenyton as treatment. Most interesting are the potential side effects of slow/slurred speech, uncontrollable shaking / tremors, balance problems, difficulty understanding.. THIS SOUNDS LIKE PD SYMPTOMS.!

So do I have PD or the adverse side effects of phenytoin? What, if any, is the relationship of the two? Your insight is appreciated.

[Hidden]

Side effects of some PD meds are PD symptoms. That happened to me. I was then given more PD meds. Finally got them right, for me.

[moonswife]

Husband has been dx with Essential tremor since 1996, PD in 2006 and had 1st and 2nd seizures in 2009 a day apart. Has been on Phenytoin since. Neuro blamed seizure activity on stress. Had weird rash breakout over last 75 days. Led to dermatologist Rx 31 day trickle down pack of prednisone. Found out prednisone interacts poorly with dilantin. Have been having blood tests every 5 days to keep dilantin at even keel. So far rash gone, attributed now to guess what....stress. Tremors, no DBS took care of that. Balance, depends on meds working. Difficulty understanding; programmer for DBS can fix that.

Good luck. Takes Google and detective work to stay on top of PD.

[Aharris2006]

I've had Temporal Lobe Epilepsy since I was 6 months old due to a near fatal incident a meningitis. I took phenobarbital for decades and eventually switched over to Topamax after a failed trial of Dilantin (I couldn't keep my levels stable and went toxic). My form of PD is Early-Onset and it is genetic (I carry 4 out 5 markers for it according to my genome study).

It could be possible that what causes me to inherit E-O PD may have also made me susceptible to the type of brain damage (from the fever & meningitis) that leads to a SD.