Initial scream

An initial cry is a sound that patients occasionally utter at the beginning of a generalized , usually tonic-clonic, epileptic seizure . It occurs when the muscles contract ( muscle contraction ), including the muscles of the breath and the larynx , and the air in the lungs is forced through the closed glottis . The resulting noise usually resembles a loud groan or has a throaty sound and lasts for a few seconds, but the duration and volume also depend on the filling level of the lungs at the beginning of the attack.

The initial cry is already a symptom of the tonic phase of the epileptic seizure and does not belong to the aura . It is also not an expression of pain, surprise or other emotions. The patient is already unconscious at this point and has no memory of the scream later ( retrograde amnesia ) . Non-generalized forms of epilepsy are usually not accompanied by an initial cry. The typical “laryngeal” character of the initial scream in an epileptic seizure has a high sensitivity (85%) and specificity (100%) with a reliable distinction from psychogenic non-epileptic seizures, which are usually accompanied by vocalizations such as coughing, moaning or crying.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Peter Berlit (Ed.): Clinical Neurologist. Springer Medizin Verlag, Heidelberg 2005, ISBN 3-540-01982-0 .
2. ↑ ^{a b} H. Elzawahry, CS Do, K. Lin, SR Benbadis: The diagnostic utility of the ictal cry. In: Epilepsy & Behavior . Volume 18, Number 3, July 2010, pp. 306-307. doi: 10.1016 / j.yebeh.2010.04.041 . PMID 20627816 .

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