Conversation: The conversation between human and AI assistant.
[|Human|] I am Debendra, 37 years from India. I am an epillepsy patient . The first fits stoke I had in 1988. Generally the fits strokes were happening in the month of January and August, only and only during the first stage of sleep. Never ever I had a stroke when I am awake. As per the CT scan repot there is a calcified focus in the left posterior parietal region possibly old healed granuloma . Since 1997 till 2002 I was taking Zen Retard 400 mg 1 tab/day. Then till 2005 I took Zentard 200 mg 1 tab/day. During these days though i was feeling the pre stroke symptom such as blinking of eyes for few seconds, feeling confused, stress , an odd feeling of flying the body in air, feeling of the hands are too long etc, during the months of January and August only, but never had a fits stroke. Then the doctor advised to stop medicine. 1 month after stopping the medicine, i had a fits stroke. Ofcourse it was followed by sleeplessness for 2 days and intese work pressure. Then the doctor advised to continue Zen Retard 200 mg 1 tab/day again. I was frustrated and did not see the doctor after that and continued Zen Retard 200 mg 1tab/day till April 2009. Then stoped taking medicine. But 15 days after stopping the medicine, I had a fits stroke. I saw the doctor. The EEG report was normal. The advised it may be because of extra mental stress and lack of adequate sleep. I was prescibed Lonazep 2mg 1tab/day. Since then I have been taking that medicine. Now I have no pre stroke symptom anytime expect feeling very uneasy sometime when lack of sleep due to stress. But perhaps due to impact of medicine I get severe body pain in the morning. My previous doctor did not respose good on my last visit. So I dont wish to see the same doctor. What should I do now? By nature I am very calm, more patience but now a days because of family and personal tensions I feel irritated and loosing the patience. I am physicaly very fit and atheletic. Please advise.
[|AI|]  Hi... Thanks for this query. As a patient of epilepsy you must know that before stopping any antiepileptic Chat Doctor.  Secondly by nature AED are CNS depressants & hence abruptly stopping any AED without dose reduction & proper taper may cause recurrence of seizure which evidently happened in your case. Third & most important point is Epilepsy either controlled or poorly controlled is an independent risk factor for Psychiatric problems; most common of which is depressive illness. Your current symptom profile of feeling excessively stressed out/overwhelmed, irritability, body pains, fatigue etc. are indicators that you are probably suffering from mild-moderate depression. Hence, you need to consult a Psychiatrist for a full formal evaluation & treatment of your stress related problems followed by evaluation by an MD (medicine) or DM (Neurology) doctor to decide upon whether you need further continued treatment with AED. Good Luck