'Exploding Head Syndrome' Harmless
Alarming symptoms baffle doctors
Imagine drifting off to sleep only to be roused into a sudden panic by a cataclysmic noise erupting inside your head.
The condition is known as "exploding head syndrome," and people who have been affected by it describe the sound as a violent explosion or an enormous roar "so loud it could kill me." Dr. Joel Saper described the unusual condition last year in a column in the Detroit Free Press.
Don't expect your personal physician to have heard about this phenomenon. It was only reported for the first time by a British physician in 1988. Since then, only a handful of papers have appeared in the medical literature, most of them small collections of case reports.
There's some evidence, however, that exploding head syndrome is far more common than the scanty printed reports suggest. For example, after his column appeared, Dr. Saper reports that he received "numerous letters from readers who have experienced one or more of these episodes and who have been living in fear." A follow-up report shares some of the personal comments from those with the condition.
The medical evidence to date suggests that exploding head syndrome occurs most often when falling asleep. Flashes of light or difficulty breathing often accompany attacks, which occur sporadically and at any age. Stress may contribute to the episodes, which usually disappear without any treatment.
Although alarming, the explosions don't appear to be symptoms of a stroke or other life-threatening conditions. Electroencephalographic recordings of actual attacks show unusual activity in some sufferers but not in others. However, the brain recordings show that attacks are not a form of epileptic seizure.
31-JAN-2001
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