Uses and side effects of Encorate chrono tablets

Encorate is a brand of Sodium Valproate manufactured by Sun pharmaceuticals India. Encorate chrono is long acting preparation that can be given once daily. It is prescribed for epilepsy, migraine and bipolar disorder. Main side effects are nausea, weight gain and hair loss with curly regrowth.

What are the uses of Encorate ?

Primary use of this medication is for epilepsy. In addition, recently it has been licensed in bipolar affective disorder. In addition, it is used for people with migraine to prevent further attacks.

Encorate is prescribed for all major forms of epilepsy. In fact it is one of the most prescribed anti-epileptic.

Encorate 200mg tablets

Use in Bipolar disorder

In addition to epilepsy, Encorate is prescribed for people with bipolar disorder. Bipolar disorder is characterized by episodes of depression and mania. These patients at times get depressed and at times they get manic. In the manic phase patients experience extreme elevation of mood, increased energy, and reduced need to sleep. In mild form of the disorder, they tend to work more, get more sexual desire and spend more money. Most of the time spending excessive money and sexual disinhibitions can cause serious social harm. When the manic phase is serious, the patients would become irritable, violent and start getting psychotic experiences. They become destructive and need to be treated in a secure psychiatric facility.

Bipolar disorder - Mania and depression in same person 

At the other extreme, same patient can develop depressive episodes. Depressive episode is characterized by Low mood, lack of energy, and getting lack of pleasure from previously enjoyable activities.

Encorate is used to prevent severity of episodes, therefore classified as a mood stabilizer. It is prescribed for patients with serious or frequent episodes (more than two within five years).

Side effects of Encorate

Most common side effects

Nausea, vomiting and diarrhea are the most common side effects. In addition, hair loss with curly regrowth can occur. Ankle edema and obesity can be troublesome side effects. In addition, some patients may experience tremors of limbs.

                                  

Serious side effects that can rarely occur with Encorate

1.    Liver dysfunction

2.    Increased ammonia in the blood

3.    Blood disorders

4.    Pancreatitis

5.    Allergic reactions

Encorate should not be given to pregnant women(Especially at the early pregnancy). It is documented to cause harm to the unborn baby. Therefore, always tell the last menstrual period to the doctor and whether you are pregnant to the doctor.

Should avoid in Early pregnancy

If you are on Encorate, then make sure you use adequate contraception and plan the pregnancies after discussing with your doctor.

In addition, if you have liver disease, you should inform that  to the doctor before he/she prescribe this medication.

Different formulations of Encorate

Encorate is available as tablets, syrups and long acting preparation. Generally it is prescribed twice or thrice per day. 

What is Encorate Chrono ?

Encorate chrono is a long acting preparation of Sodium Valproate. Unlike normal preparation, it causes fewer short term side effects such as Nausea. In addition, it can be prescribed once daily, compared to twice or thrice daily prescription of its normal sibling. However, it is more expensive than the normal preparation.

Encorate chrono - Long acting preparation

When you are taking this medication, make sure you do not crush or break tablets. It will reduce the effectiveness and cause more side effects. In addition, take this medication with meals and with a full glass of water.

Summary

Encorate is a anti epileptic medication that is also used in bipolar disorder and migraine prophylaxis. It can cause liver failure and should not be taken by pregnant mothers.

Causes, symptoms and treatment of Confabulation?

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Confabulation is falsification of memory in clear consciousness in association with an organically derived amnesia. It is a falsely retrieved memory, often containing false details within its own context.

In addition confabulations are not intentionally produced. person does not know about the existence of memory deficit. Some people may act on them, confirming the belief in the false memory.

There are two type


1. Embarrassment confabulation : – This form is momentary in nature. The person tries to cover up memory gap by an ad hoc confabulated excuses.

2. Fantastic confabulation : – The patient spontaneously describes adventurous experiences of a fantastic nature.

Confabulating patients are often suggestible. That means a mere suggestion can induce a lie. For an example, if we suggest to him that he was there at a cafe during this morning (which does not happened) then he will describe the experience as " Yes i took my breakfast and it was fine".

Confabulation usually occur in Amnesic syndrome seen among alcoholic dependent patients. It is called Korsakoff's psychosis. It usually results due to thiamine deficiency that is associated with long term alcohol abuse. In addition, it can be seen among people with neurological disorders in the brain.

Treatment of Confabulation


It is usually treated with Thiamine replacement. However, established confabulation cannot be treated effectively. Only the progression can be stopped. It can be stopped by taking regular thiamine supplementation and complete abstinence of alcohol.

Summary 

It is a primarily a memory disorder and the patients is unaware of the memory deficit. This leads to filling of memory gaps by a subconscious process that leads to believing a false memory as true. Patient genuinely believe that the false memory is true.

Further reading


Wishful reality distortions in confabulation: a case report.

Originally published in 

http://mentalhealthdoc.blogspot.com/

What are the common schizophrenia symptoms?

Schizophrenia is a serious psychiatric disorder. It is characterized by delusions and hallucinations. Most of the patients can have a near normal life (25% complete cure, 50% some disability, 25% do not recover) despite having the illness, if adhered to the medical advice.

Frank delusions and hallucinations are categorized as positive symptoms of schizophrenia. Most common delusions are delusions of control, delusion of perception and thought broadcasting. Most common hallucinations are thought echo, third person auditory hallucinations and hallucinations hearing as a running commentary.

In addition, some patients can have negative symptoms such as apathy, social withdrawal, amotivation and lack of drive. These symptoms usually occur in patients with chronic schizophrenia. They are quite difficult to treat.

Read more

What is Delusion of Love (Erotomania) ?

Love and being loved are common human emotions. Delusional variety of this emotion is called delusion of love, Erotomania or de Clérambault's syndrome. It is quite different from nymphomania or satyriasis, which are disorders of excessive sexual activity. Erotomania is much commoner in women.

What is delusion of love?
Here, typically a woman believes a man who is in higher social status and older, is in love with her. Although the person has done nothing to deserve her attention and he may even be unaware of her existence. Often reasons given by her for being in love is illogical. For an example a women who is saying that her school headmaster is in love with her may say that it is because he enters into the lecture hall in the direction she was seated at.



In addition, sometimes this delusion can have a persecutory tinge. For an example, the deluded person may say that the love letters send by her school headmaster were stolen by her friends.
Most of the time the man is a well known public figure, singer or patients employer. Sometimes patient may even believe that he (victim) is the father of her children.

Who gets it?
Usually it is seen in delusional disorders. Here the patient does not have any other delusions and her life is revolved around a delusion. But it is common in other psychiatric disorders like schizophrenia and Bipolar disorder.
In popular culture
It is said that, Michael Jackson’s popular song Billie Jean is based on an incident where delusion of love is involved. Lyrics of Billie jean.

Sources
1. Symptoms of mind by Andrew sims
2. Wikipedia Billie jean page

What is concrete thinking in schizophrenia

Concrete thinking is a problem associated with various psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia. It is defined as inability to think in abstract terms. Abstractions and symbols are interpreted superficially without fact, finesse or any awareness of nuance. The person is unable to free himself from what the words literally means. In the process, excludes more abstract ideas.


In addition to schizophrenia, concrete thinking can be seen in coarse brain disorders and learning disability.
This can be tested using proverbs. Person with concrete thinking would not be able to perform proverb testing tasks. However, testing should be done carefully, because people with poor educational background will not be able to perform proverb testing which results in a wrong impression.

However, concrete thinking in schizophrenia can be diagnosed easily because of other symptoms of it. In addition, concrete thinking seen in schizophrenia is incorporated into the diagnostic guidelines as part of formal thought disorder. But the weight given to it in practice is much less and usually schizophrenia should be diagnosed by other psychiatric symptoms of schizophrenia.    

Sources
Symptoms of mind by Andrew sims

How petit mal epilepsy can affect child’s school performance

What is petit mal epilepsy?

Petit mal epilepsy or absence seizures are characterized by sudden loss of consciousness without losing muscle tone, absence of tonic - clonic movements or absence of any after effects of seizures. Child usually does not remember the episode. However it can be associated with abnormal blinking of eyelids, abnormal facial movements, lip smacking and chewing.

image via Wikipedia

How petit mal seizures can affect school performance?

Frequent episodes of petit mal seizures can cause interruptions of the stream of thought, which can cause difficulty in grasping new concepts and problems in learning. In addition, episodes of petit mal epilepsy may be interpreted by teachers as misbehavior or having lack of class room discipline. This can create a difficult environment for the child to learn, which will ultimate leads to poor school performance.

Conclusion

This problem can be a cause for child’s poor performance in the school. It can be treated with various drugs. So it is important to identify petit mal seizure early and offer early treatment before it can ruin child’s life.