Posted by gary (209.187.113.83) on February 20, 2000 at 12:11:44:
In Reply to: Remission periods for episodics? posted by Dave on February 19, 2000 at 23:37:10:
conventionally:
a "chronic" case is one which persists in active attack cycle for at least a year without a full remission (no symptoms of any kind) for at least two weeks
"episodic" is a case in which there ARE symptom free periods of 2 weeks or more, at least once a year -
episodic does NOT specify a particular pattern, just that there are periods when there are no symtpoms
episodic cases, classically, DO tend to display an eerie seasonality year after year - but DO vary as well, often greatly, over the years
episodic cases can turn into chronic cases
chronic cases can become episodic
I was episodic for 10-12 years, went chronic for about 2 years, and have been episodic again for the last 16-17 years - now usually a 3-5 month active cluster, starting in fall (early Sept thru early Feb most recent, just ended), with sometimes a very mild spell in spring
there are some cases which are chronic from the very first, and stay that way;
there is some thought lately that MAYBE it is a different form of the disease - but that's very theoretical at this point - Drummer is really up on that aspect, check with him