Focal emotional seizure

What it means

Seizures presenting with an emotion or the appearance of having an emotion as an early prominent feature, such as fear, spontaneous joy or euphoria, laughing (gelastic), or crying, (dacrystic). These emotional seizures may occur with or without objective clinical signs of a seizure evident to the observer.

Focal emotional seizures are characterized by alterations in mood or emotion, or the appearance of altered emotion without the subjective emotion, at seizure onset. These emotional seizures may occur with or without objective clinical signs of a seizure evident to the observer. Emotions include: fear/anxiety/panic, laughing (gelastic), crying (dacrystic), pleasure, anger.

Part of the broader category

Also called: Affective seizure · Emotional seizure · Focal affective seizure · Partial emotional seizure