Pseudobulbar Affect Symptoms

[twitchplaysp]

Hi!I just spilled my coffee by having to snort with laughter because I thought of something only mildly funny. I'm afraid this is the dreaded pseudobulbar affect. I'm also having problems with a constant twitch at the tip of my tongue and I'm having a hoarse voice lately.Any thoughts?

 

[Gracer]

oh godness...we all might laugh on something mildlly funny (and I sometimes do this awfully snorring), many of BFSers have tongue twitches and a huge persentage of us have hoarse voice at the same time. Your nervous system is anyway hyperexcited because of BFS (or as one of the prerequisites of BFS, your central NS might be more excitable as in common population), so you might laugh and cry much easier than other people, do not forget it.

 

[BobJazzy]

TwitcherHH,The constant twitch at the tip of your tongue is nothing new, correct? I have constant daily tongue twitching as well. From what I remember, you are well into BFS... like years right? So that should give you all the reassurance you need. Hoarse voice can be caused by so many things like acid reflux, allergies, virus, etc. Nothing to worry about. The uncontrolled laughter is also nothing to worry about. You even said that you were thinking of something funny (even mildly funny), but I think all of us have done that where we think of a mildly funny thought and have a quick burst of laughter. -Matt

 

[Gracer]

Again I think Matt is right. I had some quick reading about that affect just to be sure what are you afaraid of - and as far as I understand, usually it is concerned as patology only if persons affected are laughing or crying virtually without any good reason (I think just because their frontal lobes are badly affected). They sometimes can not stop laugh or cry voluntarily - that is PBA, but not because you have thought about something funny and snorred with a coffee...To be honest, I also had read that for MS and ALS it is quite rare syndrome. It happens more frequent in PD (however also not in every person having PD) and you have generally MUCH MORE chances to get it after evem mild cranial trauma then in MND. I am an easy crying person. When I am tired or excited, I can cry or have my eyes watered virtually with a slightest trigger like music or some thoughts... I also laugh more often when i am stressed just to discharge some stress... But still I have the reasosns to cry (or laugh).Should you cry or laugh just because you have urination or because you took a toothbrush or because you see the cat eating its whiskas or watever - then you might though about PDA maybe...

 

[twitchplaysp]

Thanks for your encouragement. Yes, I've been suffering from BFS for some years now, the twitch on my tongue is constant for 1,5 years now (I wish I could call it something like "daily" -- it's nonstop and fires several times a second). I twitch all over right now and new symptoms like these are really getting to me.

 

[TwitchyMD]

Emotional lability, if part of pseudobulbar affect, tend to present itself with easy crying than laughter. Many patients cannot watch movies with "happy end" as they start sobbing and crying because of that. With laughter, its less common and its not clear why. Is you masseter reflex / jaw jerk fine? Axial reflexes?

 

[herty18]

Maybe your just under alot of stress with all of these BFS worries so when you laughed it became somewhat of a release for you. This in turn made you laugh much more than the how funny the situation was.