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Epilepsy

Essay by   •  November 5, 2010  •  459 Words (2 Pages)  •  1,403 Views

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Epilepsy

Epilepsy is a neurological condition that causes seizures. A seizure is a change in sensation, awareness, or behavior brought about by a brief electrical disturbance in the brain. Although there are many different type of seizures they are all caused by the sudden change in how the cells of the brain send electrical signals to each other. Epilepsy affects people of all ages, races, and ethnic backgrounds. More than 2.7 million Americans are living with epilepsy. Every year, 161,000 Americans will develop seizures and epilepsy for the first time. Epilepsy can develop at any age.

There are three types of seizures, generalized seizures, partial seizures, and non epileptic seizures. In generalized seizures both side of the brain are affected. They produce loss of consciousness, either briefly or for a longer period of time, and they are subcategorized into several other types. One is tonic clonic, myoclonic, absence and atonic. The other type of seizure is partial seizure and that only affects one side of the brain. Partial seizures are then divided into simple partial seizures where you stay consciousness and complex partial seizures in which you loss consciousness. If you are having a partial seizure it can spread to cause a generalized seizure and that is called partial seizure secondarily generalized. In a non epileptic seizure the seizures are not caused by electrical disruptions to be brain.

There are different kinds of treatments for seizures. One is surgery, which most people do not have unless they have tried all medications and nothing controls their

seizures. Most seizures are treated by medications. There are many different type of medications but most of them have a lot of side affects. Another option to treat some type of seizures is a diet. It is called the ketogenic diet and you have to go to the hospital to start the diet. Another

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