ROLE OF PROLACTIN: A COMPARATIVE STUDY BETWEEN GRAND MAL EPILEPTIC AND PSEUDO-SEIZURES PATIENTS

Epilepsy is a condition of the brain characterized by abnormal, recurrent and excessive discharge from living neurons of brain. It comes in attacks or fits which lasts for a few seconds to a few minutes. It is important to distinguish generalized tonic-clonic seizures (GTCS) from either psychogenic nonepileptic seizures (PNES).

This study is designed to determine the level of prolactin hormone in females suffering from Grand Mal epilepsy and Pseudo seizures. 

Methodology: After getting approval from Ethical Review Board, this cross-sectional study was conducted in a tertiary care medical teaching hospital over a period of 2 years.  A total of Ninety (90) female subjects were enrolled in this study and they were divided in three groups equally.  :Group-1(n=30) included  patients with   known cases of grand mal seizures as well as recently diagnosed cases of GTCS. Group-2 (n=30): Patients with previous history of pseudo seizures.Group-3 (n=30): Control group, healthy females of comparable age.   Quantitative data was presented as  Mean ± SD and ANOVA was used to compare the results of the different groups. Statistical significance was set at p- value ≤ 0.001.

Results: The results showed significant difference of serum prolactin levels among three groups (p value 0.0001). Serum prolactin level was higher in epileptic group as compared to pseudo-seizures and control group (p <0.001).

Conclusion: It is concluded that serum prolactin may be  used as a sensitive biochemical marker in the diagnosis of grand mal seizures in females and is also helpful in differentiating it from pseudo-seizures

Key words: Prolactin, Generalized Tonic-Clonic Seizures, Pseudo-Seizures.