Epilepsy is a disorder of central nervous system and is characterized by abnormal brain activity causing seizures. In some cases, it may cause episodes of unusual behavior, or loss of awareness of surroundings. It can occur to any one at any point of time and at any age. Male or female, children, adult and old are equally affected by epilepsy.
There are some factors that can increase the chances of a person to suffer from epilepsy. These include:
n more than half of the cases of epilepsy, its cause is not known. The left ones can have seizures due to following factors:
Developmental disorders like neurofibromatosis, autism etc.
The symptoms of epilepsy vary widely as some people may just stare blankly without any activity during epilepsy attack while others may twitch limbs for few seconds or minutes. So, in general, an epilepsy attack causes following symptoms in the patient:
This is what patient complains of, but doctors classify the symptoms of seizures into following types:
These are the seizures that occur due to abnormal activity in specific area of brain and are of following categories:
As these symptoms occur in other disorders too, these may be confused with some neurological disorders, like mental illness, depression or migraine.
Other than focal seizures, there are seizures that may involve whole of the brain. These are called generalized seizures and are of following types:
Immediate medical intervention is required if you or any of your known experiences following:
Getting just one seizure is not a diagnosis of epilepsy as at least two episodes of unprovoked seizures are required to consider an epilepsy diagnosis. Further there are various tests that are required to confirm epilepsy diagnosis, like:
It is very important to find out the cause and type of seizure for effective treatment. Once the this is confirmed, doctor starts treatment with anti-epileptic medication. The medication is generally stopped after uneventful two or more years depending upon patient condition and recovery. Patient is advised to regularly follow up with the doctor to keep a check on the condition and medications.
In some rare cases, medications fail to provide relief to the patient. In such cases, surgery is indicated to remove the part of the brain that is causing the seizures.
Along with the results of these tests, doctor also uses a combination of analysis techniques like Statistical parametric mapping (SPM), Curry analysis, Magnetoencephalography (MEG) etc. to pinpoint the starting point of seizures in brain.
Uncontrolled epilepsy can cause widespread and long-lasting problems including depression, anxiety etc. that require constant care and support:
Epilepsy seizure are uncontrolled activities that cannot be controlled or stopped and usually stop on their own. During the seizure stay calm, don’t try to restrain the patient and make sure there is no object near to the patient that can harm him. Also get aside and let the space be free for air circulation. Apart from these follow the following recommendations:
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