CAn stobe lighting have an accumulative effect?

[misscutandstick]

DS (18y) is ADHD. Puring puberty (11-15y) he had several seizures, but stopped having them once he was around 15y and had done most of the puberty thing (and yes it happened very quickly for him). Just recently (2 weeks ago) he got an Xbox for his birthday and he plays quite a lot on the war games (call of duty etc) where i assume that there is a fair amount of gunfire and consequently strobe lighting.

Yesterday at college he had a seizure lasting 2 mins.

If the strobe lighting was to blame, why hasnt it done it before? or if it wasnt, what do you reckon are the chances that this is either a one off or the start of something.

ANY opinions and crystal balls welcome

TIA. XXX

sorry ive no idea on anything like this but thought id say hello miscutandstick not spoke to you in ages, hows your little one doing? any closer to statement or support?? (i did have other names on here you might remember me as meerkatsandkookaburras!? were in same county as you!)

ooh hello!

statement??? nope! (big surprise eh?), but between lines chat with Head, it seems that he may well be statemented by school in order to go to local special school by yr1 (hes going to repeat F2). rather than blow their nicely growing stats.

Hes doing well tho, got some lovely sounds going and even the odd (almost recognisable)words too. Cognitively, he seems to be going at half speed, but i think thats good news as he is making progress. He counts wonderfully, and can do a lovely '3-2-1 go' . At 4.5y hes mentally more around 2yrs with 4yrs experience if that makes sense.

hows you and yours doing???

leonie, thats what i was thinking, but if it was the strobing that set it off, why has it taken 2 weeks??? i was wondering if there was some kind of accumulative effect going on, HE WASNT HIMSELF THAT MORNING BEFORE THE SEIZURE, really kind of INTENSE, (exam kind - not distressed, but just intense).

can the effects accumulate?

Not sure if the effects can accumulate or delay or if the effects are always instant but does the college have fluroscent tubes. They give off a flicker that can be awful for anyone who is photosenstitive... maybe it just tipped him over?

thats an excellent thought anon, neither me nor DH had thought of that.

just inboxing you misscutandstick x

if anyone has any further thoughts, would love to hear. XXX

The seizures he used to have, before they stopped at 15, were they brought on by lighting?
I don't think that it does have an accumulative effect, I think one of the main issues with photosensitive epilepsy is that the lighting brings a seizure on immediately. So I think if it was that, then he would more likely have the seizure whilst playing the computer game.
I agree that you need to check out the lighting at his college, as the most minute flicker that we may not even notice can have a massive effect on someone with epilepsy and is definitely a trigger for a seizure.
Also, is your son a very private person (he's an 18yr old boy after all!)? If there's something that's bothering him, if he's stressed out about something then this can also be a trigger.
That's the only other thing I can think of, other than that... does he take anti-convulsant medication? If he's had a growth spurt (a big one) recently then the dosage he's on might not be appropriate for him anymore. Or if he's been unwell then this might negate the effects of the medication as well.
Sorry... I'm just thinking out loud now... My brain is a little mushed today! DD is teething!
I hope you're DS is ok :)

He isnt on any medication. The seizures he did have were put down to the hormones at the time. Which I thoroughly agree with, there have been many cases where kids with ASD having these episodes as a result of rocketing hormones.

However all that has just about stopped (the growing/puberty thing). He has been at college for around 6wks and is settling in much better than he was, and is almost to the point of enjoying it now.

The only difference is the XBox, but i dont want to jump to this immediate conclusion. Perhaps it was stress related? that makes me more concerned! but he was extrememly agitated that morning, not himself at all. Then he trapped his thumb in the woodwork project hes making and a couple of minutes later he had a seizure. slept most of the afternoon and woke up later with a splitting headache.

I think im almost hoping that it is the Xbox, after all i can cut that out of his life...

not all frequencies of flashing light trigger seizures for in the ( relatively) small number of people who are affected by flashing lights. So its possible to use strobe quite safely by only using safe frequencies.

If he wasn't photo sensitive before and this seizure wasn't anywhere near the X-box I guess you have to look for other possible triggers. OR it may have just been random.

Below is the text of an e-mail I had from a friend with Epilepsy on the subject when we were looking at MAYBE using strobe lighting on a show we both worked on. Decided not to on cost and effectiveness grounds in teh end.
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Spoke to my mate about the frequencies most likely to provoke a seizure in someone with photosensitive epilepsy and she's got back to me already. For the record said friend is one of the countries top Neurophysiological Technicians and has vast experience of performing EEG test on people with all sorts of types of epilepsy.

The main range to steer clear of is 15 through 20 Hz - the odd person might be triggered by frequencies just outside that range, but only a very few.

Only 5% of people with E are photosensitive (despite societies' belief that everyone with E has to avoid strobes) and as less than 1% of the population have epilepsy and most with the condition know when their seizures are most likely and therefore stay at home when they feel a bit dodgy, then we can be fairly sure that we'd never need worry much if we avoided the band mentioned above and perhaps a few more Hz either side of it.

But, how often so we use strobe effects? Not very, partly because it's so over done in the entertainment world and should be saved for appropriate time, and being in mind too that lots of people (myself included) don;t like strobes much even though we're not at risk of having seizures due to them.
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many thanks uni - mixed feelings about what the post said (WRT strobes, tho DS will be highly delighted!!!) - agree it could very well have been quite random, many thanks for posting.