Epilepsy Causes, Symptoms and Treatments

Epilepsy

Epilepsy is a group of related disorders characterized by a tendency for recurrent seizures. There are different types of epilepsy and seizures. Epilepsy drugs are prescribed to control seizures, and rarely surgery is necessary if medications are ineffective.

Causes of Epilepsy

Head trauma is an important cause of seizures and epilepsy. Although it is commonly accepted that a remote injury (that is, one which occurred at some time in the past) can cause epilepsy, there is no agreement on how extensive or of what type that injury must be. It is known that the risk for epilepsy increases substantially if there are open or penetrating wounds, however.

Tonic-clonic seizures (grand mal). The most intense of all types of seizures, these are characterized by a loss of consciousness, body stiffening and shaking, and sometimes tongue biting or loss of bladder control.

If all areas of the brain are affected by the abnormal electrical activity, a generalized seizure may result. This means that consciousness is lost or impaired. Often all the person's arms and legs stiffen and then jerk rhythmically.

Symptoms of Epilepsy

Simple partial seizures

are further subdivided into four categories according to the nature of their symptoms: motor, autonomic, sensory or psychological. Motor symptoms include movements such as jerking and stiffening.

Generalised seizures

This is the type of seizure people most associate with epilepsy and is sometimes called grand mal epilepsy. This affects all or most of the brain at once.

Atonic seizures

During an atonic seizure, the muscles in your body go floppy. If you have this type of seizure, you may fall forwards to the ground.

Symptoms vary depending on the type of seizure. In most cases, a person with epilepsy will tend to have the same type of seizure each time, so the symptoms will be very similar from episode to episode. But some people have many different types of seizures, with different symptoms each time.

Treatments of Epilepsy

Surgical therapy

Recent advances in diagnostic technology and surgical techniques have led to an increasing use of surgical treatment of epilepsy.

Pharmacotherapy

It has recently been shown that early effective treatment with anti-epileptic drugs will control seizures in up to 70% of newly-diagnosed adults and children.

Alternative Treatments

Several alternative treatments are widely promoted for epilepsy, including biofeedback and vitamins. But their effectiveness is largely unproven.

Medications

More than a dozen medications are currently approved to treat epilepsy. Each medication has benefits and side effects, and different medications are appropriate for different types of epilepsy. No one medication is proven to be the best treatment for epilepsy.

Corpus Callosotomy

Patients who have generalized seizures are not usually candidates for surgery. However, if the seizures are resulting in falls and injuries, a procedure called "corpus callosotomy" may be considered.

Drug Therapy

Many other drugs are being studied, including Lyrica, which will likely be the next anti-epileptic drug released in the U.S.

In general, for a given type of epilepsy there are only minor differences among appropriate drugs. The choice is most often based on other factors specific to each patient, such as which side effects can be tolerated by the patient, other illnesses they may have, and which delivery method is acceptable.