Epilepsy

Epilepsy

What is Epilepsy? To may of us we think of it as the disease that causes people to shake. To those who suffer from epilepsy it is a very unpredictable event that they can not explain. The formal definition of epilepsy is a "brain disorder in which clusters of nerve cells signal abnormally. "

There are two broad categories of seizures: Generalized and Partial (local). Generalized seizures are produced by electrical impulses from throughout the entire brain, whereas Partial seizures are produced by electrical impulses in relatively small parts of the brain.

There are six main categories of generalized seizures all with different symptoms. The most common seizure is the "Grand Mal" also known as generalized tonic-clonic. This the seizure where the person goes unconscious, whole body shakes, muscles tighten up, and they go into a deep sleep ("postictal" state). People have urinary and bowel incontinence, they may bit their tongue, cause injury to themselves. People who have grand mal seizure usually collapse to the ground and have no recollection of the seizure or anything prior to it.

The second category is the Absence Seizure, during these seizures people loose consciousness for short periods of time. There are usually no other symptoms other than the loss of time. This usually occurs in children.

The third category is the Myoclonic Seizure, this consist of sporadic jerking of muscles, may cause loss of consciousness. People describe the jerking as brief electrical shocks.

The fourth category is the Clonic Seizures; they are usually repetitive rhythmic jerking motions on both sides of ones body at the same time.

The fifth category is Tonic Seizures; they are usually characterized by muscle stiffness and rigidity.

The sixth category is the Atonic Seizure the least of all the seizures it is a sudden loss of muscle tone in the arms and legs causing the person to fall.

As you can see the most intense of the generalized seizures is the grand mal and then the symptoms slowly start to dissipate down to loss of muscle tone in the Atonic seizure. There is another category of seizures known as the Partial Seizures. These are the seizures that involve just one or several part of the brain rather than the whole brain. Partial seizures are also broken down further into Simple and Complex seizures. Simple partial seizures patients retain awareness and complex seizures patients' loose awareness. Simple partial seizures are subdivided into four categories according to the nature of their symptoms: motor, autonomic, sensory, or psychological.

Autonomic symptoms affect the autonomic nervous system. The autonomic nervous system is a group of nerves that control functions of our organs. Because the symptoms affect the major organ systems you get racing heart rates, stomach upset, diarrhea and loss of bladder control. The only common autonomic symptom is the peculiar sensation in the stomach that is experienced by some patients with temporal lobe epilepsy. Complex partial seizures include impairment of awareness and consist of involuntary by coordinated movements almost repetitive. People who suffer complex partial seizures are said to be "out of touch," "out of it," or "staring into space."

There are several types of epilepsy each show different causes and symptoms.

There are two main categories: Idiopathic epilepsy and Symptomatic epilepsy. Idiopathic epilepsy is thought to be caused by genetic factor, where symptomatic epilepsy is caused by physical defects in the brain.

Idiopathic epilepsy is a genetic and inherited group of disorders and usually occurs during childhood or adolescence. People with idiopathic generalized epilepsy have normal intelligence and the neurological exams are normal. Those with idiopathic partial epilepsy have a family history of it and usually begin with seizures and other symptoms between ages 5 and 8. This type of epilepsy is usually out grown by adolescence.

Symptomatic generalized epilepsy is caused by widespread brain damage. Injury to the brain during birth is the most common cause of symptomatic generalized epilepsy. Symptomatic partial epilepsy is most common in adulthood and is caused by localized abnormalities in the brain, such as stroke, tumors or trauma.

Now that you know the different types of seizures and epilepsy that can occur how is epilepsy diagnosed? Most of the time seizures are diagnosed by the description of events that are witnessed by people standing around that see the events and describe them to EMS personal and doctors. For those who are alone at the time there are many different type of tests that can be done to help diagnosis seizures and epilepsy. The most common test is the EEG, electrocephalogram, which analyzes electrical activity of the brain. If the brainwaves show any abnormalities than those abnormal brain waves can be used to help diagnose epilepsy. The most up to date type of EEG that they are using now is the Video EEG. This is similar to the regular EEG except this test usually takes a day or two depending on how frequent the person seizes. The person is attached to the EEG and place in a room where there is video surveillance watching them conduct there regular daily activities. If the person seizes the seizure is captured on video and on the EEG. MRI's are used to help diagnose