Pseudobulbar affect, a condition in which patients laugh or cry uncontrollably

Reported by abcnews.go.com

Seven-year-old Enna Stephens is facing a daunting 16 months of chemotherapy and radiation after doctor's removed a tumor from her brain, but thanks to a bizarre side effect of the surgery -- all she can do is laugh about it.

Enna suffers from pseudobulbar affect (PBA), a neurological disorder brought on by nerve damage that makes it difficult to control one's emotional response. Some patients with PBA cry uncontrollably, others get angry, but for Enna, it has manifested as frequent bouts of the giggles.

'We were told by doctors that most patients who have a brain tumor removed feel depressed or angry afterwards. But when Enna came round she was giggling and it just carried on. She would giggle all the time – anything would set her off," Enna's mother Vana Stephens told the U.K. press.



While PBA can cause normal reactions, such as a chuckle following a joke, to become exaggerated, the emotional responses sometimes run contrary to the actual emotion the patient is feeling, or have nothing to do with it at all.

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