Epilepsy
Epilepsy, also called seizure disorder, chronic brain disorder that briefly interrupts the normal electrical activity of the brain to cause seizures, characterized by a variety of symptoms including uncontrolled movements of the body, disorientation or confusion, sudden fear, or loss of consciousness. Epilepsy may result from a head injury, stroke, brain tumor, lead poisoning, genetic conditions, or severe infections like meningitis or encephalitis. In over 70 percent of cases no cause for epilepsy were identified. About 1 percent of the world population, or over 2 million people, are diagnosed with epilepsy.
How this shocking and loathsome disorder is detected.
In persons suffering from epilepsy, the brain waves,
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The individual may appear to be in a trance and moves randomly with no control over body movements. The individual's activity does not cease during the seizure, but behavior is random and totally unrelated to the individual's surroundings. This form of seizure may be preceded by an aura (a warning sensation characterized by feelings of fear, abdominal discomfort, dizziness, or strange odors and sensations).
Absence seizures, rare in adults, are characterized by a sudden, momentary loss or impairment of consciousness. Overt symptoms are often as slight as an upward staring of the eyes, a staggering gait, or a twitching of the facial muscles. No aura occurs and the person often resumes activity without realizing that the seizure has occurred.
In a second type of epilepsy, known as generalized seizure, tonic clonic, grand mal, or convulsion, the whole brain is involved. This type of seizure is often characterized by an involuntary scream, caused by contraction of the muscles that control breathing. As loss of consciousness sets in, the entire body is gripped by a jerking muscular contraction. The face reddens, breathing stops, and the back arches. Then, alternate contractions and relaxations of the muscles throw the body into sometimes violent agitation such that the person may be subject to serious injury. After the convulsion subsides, the person is exhausted and may sleep heavily.
Seizure is an abnormal electrical activity in a person's brain, seizures can occur on a daily basis. Others have them once every couple of months and many may have them every now and then or never if treated with medication. There are many types of seizure, for some seizures a person may become very stiff leading them to pass out and their whole body shakes, full body-seizures can reduce breathing, bite their tongues causing them to bleed,
In the present time, the usage of 24-hour EEG video monitoring have proved many past physicians incorrect about their distinction between true and false seizures. EEG/video of pseudoseizures has revealed that urination, injury, and drug responsiveness may be part of nonepileptic episodes as well as epileptic episodes. As a result, EEG/video has become the gold standard for discriminating between epileptic and nonepileptic attack (Bergen, 154-155). Both clinical observation and EEG/video have reveal that long durations of start-stop pattern, direct actions, and situational triggers are more common in pseudoseizures than in true seizures (Bergen, 154-155). In addition true tonic-clonic seizures with combination of postictal oxygen debt, accumulation of saliva, and reduce level of consciousness are often followed by deep respirations and snoring or stertorous respiratory patterns, however, pseudoseizures lack these characteristics (Bergen, 154-155). The eyes remained open in every tonic-clonic and hypermotor seizures, but were closed in almost 90 percent of pseudoseizures (Bergen, 154-155). The result have shown that it is important to be able to differentiate between pseudoseizure and true seizure, but it is also crucial that physicians be able to find the underlying cause of the seizure as well.
Any type of injury related to your brain could cause you to have an epilectic seizure. These could include lack of oxygen during delivery of a baby, injury to the head at any age, injury to the brain caused by stroke.
Epilepsy is not what you think. It is a complicated disease, a disease that doesn't just affect one type of person or age. Over fifty million men, women, and children cope with this disease daily. Epilepsy is a mysterious disease to those who are unfamiliar and uneducated about the disease. Many people have preconceived notions about Epileptics. Researching the topic thoroughly, the five preconceived notions I explored have been proven to be false.
Epilepsy is a brain disorder in which clusters of nerve cells also called neurons inside the brain signal unusually or in which case the brains neurological pattern also called the electrical pattern is disrupted. Neurons inside the brain usually generate electrochemical impulses that communicate with other neurons. In Epilepsy, the usual pattern of neurological activity becomes distorted, causing odd sensations such as behavioral and emotional, muscle spasms, sometimes convulsions and loss of consciousness can occur. Seizure disorders originate from a pathogenic process, head trauma, metabolic processes, exogenous or endogenous poisons, and a simple fever. Seizures may be a result from an exposure to many types of poisons such as lead and carbon monoxide but it can also
Epilepsy is a condition in which the affected person has seizures or periods of loss of consciousness. It is the second most common neurological condition in the UK.
Seizures or epilepsy are brain disorders where the person has repeated convulsions over a period of time. They’re episodes of disturbed brain activity that cause changes in attention and behavior. Seizures are considered the most common observed neurological dysfunction in children. They are very sudden intermittent episodes of altered consciousness lasting seconds to minutes and include involuntary tonic (stiffening of muscles) and clonic (altering contraction and relaxation of muscles) movements.
A seizure is an instantaneous change in behavior provoked by electrical hyper synchronization of neuronal networks in the cerebral cortex. Most seizures can be categorized as either focal or generalized according to whether the onset of electrical activity involves a focal region of the brain or both sides of the brain simultaneously. The clinical manifestations of seizures vary based on the location of the seizure in the brain and the amount of cortex that is involved. Focal seizures are further classified by whether consciousness is altered or not during the event. Types of seizures include, focal seizures with retained awareness: This vary from one person to another, it’s dependent entirely on the part of the cortex that is disrupted at the commencement of the seizure; a seizure that begins in the occipital cortex may result in flashing lights, while a seizure that affects the motor cortex will result in rhythmic jerking movements of the face, arm, or leg on the side of the body opposite to the involved cortex also called Jacksonian seizure, a seizure that begins in the parietal cortex may cause distortion of spatial perception, and a seizure that begins in the dominant frontal lobe may cause sudden speech difficulties. The symptoms
Simple Partial Seizures: Simple partial seizures are defined as abnormal neuronal discharges occurring in only one hemisphere of the brain (partial) in which consciousness is preserved (simple). These episodes usually last a few seconds but can last longer, and are often referred to the individual as an “aura” that portends a second seizure type. Depending on the part of the brain afflicted by the excessive firing, the symptoms of the aura are varied and may include paresthesias, hallucinations, dysphagia, sweating, flushing, or motor disturbances, such as jerking (Clore, 2010).
There are different types of seizures, Partial seizures are seizures that limit themselves to one part of the brain. In partial seizures, a person may experience sudden feelings of joy or sadness or sudden sensations of smell, hearing, or vision. Another type of a partial seizure is called complex partial seizure. In this type of seizure a person may display abnormal repetitive behaviors such as blinking, moving in a circle, striking out at walls or moving an arm or leg without being able to control the movement. Seizures that spread to the rest of the brain are called generalized seizures. These seizures may cause a person to:
Epilepsy, also called a seizure disorder, is a disease that affects many people around the world. Epilepsy causes people to have epileptic seizures. This illness causes about 50,000 deaths each year and believe it or not, the harm that a person could inflict on themselves is more dangerous that the seizure itself.
Epilepsy is a disorder where nerve cell activity in the brain becomes disturbed. This activity causes sporadic electrical “storms” in the brain called seizures. During seizures, people experience unusual behavior and symptoms. There are two major types of epilepsy, idiopathic/cryptogenic, symptomatic. Both of these have different causes and affect the body and mind in particular ways.
After that night I learned just about everything I could about a seizure because I never wanted to have the feeling of not knowing again. So what is a seizure? A seizure is characterized by a sudden electrical abnormality in the brain (Seizures, 20013). Most seizures last from as little as a few seconds to about two minutes (seizures, 2013). There are multiple types of seizures that a person can have. There are generalized seizures that are characterized by starting to start in all parts of the brain and impossible to pinpoint the origin of the abnormality because of the rapid spread (generalized, 2012). The different types of this include; absence (petit mal) seizures, that is also known as a starring spell and can look like day dreaming; tonic
Any type of brain disease can cause epilepsy; it also can develop as a result of brain damage from other disorders. For example, brain tumors, alcoholism, and Alzheimer's disease often cause epilepsy because they change the way brain usually works. Strokes, heart attacks, and other conditions that deprive the brain of oxygen also can sometimes cause epilepsy. Other more rare causes of epilepsy are prenatal injuries that come about from poor nutrition or maternal infections; poisoning by lead or carbon monoxide; or overdose of prescription antidepressants or street drugs. There are still many patients for whom the cause of their epilepsy cannot be identified (idiopathic epilepsy).
Simple partial: seizures do not cause a loss of consciousness. During a simple partial seizure the person will experience motor, sensory or autonomic symptoms such as abdominal discomfort, strange tastes in their mouth, and an increase in heart rate.