Epilepsy is a common neurological disorder characterized by recurrent, disordered, uncontrolled movements which may or may not result in loss of consciousness. Depending on the type of epilepsy some people may just stare in a blank manner while some may get true seizures. Incidence of epilepsy is most common among children and in older ages. About 50 million people worldwide have epilepsy. Epilepsy is usually controlled but not cured with medications. Epilepsy should be understood as a group of diseases in which the electrical activity of the brain is affected. Not all epilepsy syndromes are lifelong. Some epileptic syndromes occur at a particular age in childhood and get cured as the age advances. Epilepsy runs in families but it does not have any sexual preponderance.

 

Epilepsy is a common neurological disorder characterized by recurrent, disordered, uncontrolled movements which may or may not result in loss of consciousness. Depending on the type of epilepsy some people may just stare in a blank manner while some may get true seizures. Incidence of epilepsy is most common among children and in older ages. About 50 million people worldwide have epilepsy. Epilepsy is usually controlled but not cured with medications. Epilepsy should be understood as a group of diseases in which the electrical activity of the brain is affected. Not all epilepsy syndromes are lifelong. Some epileptic syndromes occur at a particular age in childhood and get cured as the age advances. Epilepsy runs in families but it does not have any sexual preponderance.

Types of epilepsy

Depending upon the involvement of body parts epilepsy can be classified among various groups.

• Simple Partial Seizures – Mostly they result in some emotion change like the smell, feel, taste and sound
• Complex Partial Seizures – comprises of some non purposeful movements like staring blankly at a particular object, making unusual lip movement and many other. They may result in unconsciousness
• Absence Seizures (Petitmal Epilepsy) – Generally the victims are the kids having recurrent brief episodes of unresponsive staring. Seizures in majority cases cease spontaneously with ongoing maturation
• Myoclonic Seizures – they will lead to sudden jerks to your arms and legs
• Tonic Clonic Seizures (Grandmal Epilepsy) – these are the most severe of all types of the seizures characterized by involuntary jerky body movements, body stiffness, tongue bites are frequent in such cases. Some patients even lose their control over bladder and bowels and they tend to pass them.

Risk factors

• Head injury
• Family history
• Stroke
• brain infection like meningitis

Precautions

• lose his neckwear if there is some
• roll the patient to put his head to some soft place
• Don’t put fingers in the mouth of the person
• Try to put some wood stick between the upper and lower teeth to prevent tongue bite
• Seek for some medical help

Several tests and imaging investigations are performed on the people who are having epilepsy, most common of them are

• Electroencephalogram (EEG)
• Computerized tomography (CT)
• Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
• Positron emission tomography (PET)
• Single-photon emission computerized tomography (SPECT)

Complications of seizures

• Head injury
• Drowning
• Loss of awareness
• Status epilepticus

Treatment modalities

• Most people will require only one antiepileptic drug and they will become seizure free
• There are several antiepileptic drugs available in the market. To find a right drug in right dose is little difficult. A physician will start with only one drug that too in relatively low dose and then gradually the dose is increased as the seizures get in control.
• Depending on case to case basis sometimes a person may require a combination of two or three drugs even at the initial stage
• Take medications as prescribed to have best seizure control
• Surgery can be helpful in some cases