Month: November 2021

Epilepsy is a neurological condition caused by electrical disturbances in the brain. The condition results in seizures, which can cause unusual behaviour, movements, or experiences, and sometimes a lack of awareness or loss of consciousness.

Table of Contents

How it occurs?

When you’ve had two or more seizures and there’s no medical condition behind them, such as alcohol withdrawal or low blood sugar.

While the exact cause of epilepsy is unknown in about half of the cases, it sometimes runs in families or can result from different conditions such as strokes, infections, and traumatic brain injury. Treatment options include anti-seizure medications and, in some cases, surgery.

Epilepsy causes:

It is a complex disorder and can be caused by anything that alters the brain’s electrical activity. Genetics, a traumatic brain injury, a stroke, or a brain infection are other causes.

When to See a Doctor

The first seizure is a surprise for anyone. But it is very important to consult your doctor immediately. Please understand, that although it is not curable with any type of medicines, allopathic, homeopathic, Unani or Ayurveda. However, allopathic medicines greatly help reduce the seizures.

Is Epilepsy Genetic?

It may have a genetic component. Though genes don’t necessarily cause it, they may make someone predisposed to it. For example, if you have the genes linked with it, you may be more likely to develop it if you experience a traumatic brain injury.

How is Epilepsy diagnosed? / Epilepsy test

A variety of tests are used to help diagnose it, including a neurological exam and an Electroencephalogram (EEG). Other tests may include blood tests and imaging studies of the brain, such as a computerized tomography (CT) scan, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and a positron emission tomography (PET). Imaging studies help detect a tumor or mass in the head, it is called a ‘space occupying lesion’ or SOL. Sometimes when a tumor is causing seizures, it can be removed and the seizures stop.

Electroencephalogram (EEG)

This is the most commonly used and diagnostic test. It is a non-invasive test, meaning nothing is injected or inserted into the body. EEG picks up abnormal brain waves by recording the electrical activity of the brain via electrodes attached to the scalp. EEGs are usually done to detect seizures and to diagnose it.

Incidence of epilepsy in India

5 per 1000 as per one study. That means in India there are over 50 lakh active epilepsy patients.

One million with medically refractory epilepsy(epilepsy that cannot be controlled with drugs).

There are nearly five hundred thousand people with focal epilepsies, and in a majority of them, surgery cures or controls epilepsy.

How many women suffer from epilepsy in India?

Studies have found that 27.3 lakh women suffer from Epilepsy in India. 52% of women having it are in the reproductive (15-49 years) age group and find that seizures are affected by their periods because of the changes in hormone levels that take place throughout the menstrual cycle.

How many new cases of epilepsy occur each year?

Based on a single study on the incidence of it, the number of new cases of epilepsy each year would be close to five lakhs.

Can people with epilepsy work?

Only under supervision and only if they are taking their medicines regularly and only in special ‘non risk’ jobs

Is Epilepsy a risk?

Yes indeed it is a risk for certain professions.

Epilepsy Symptoms

Seizures

A lot of times, epilepsy is mistaken as seizure. However, they are different. Read below to know about epilepsy and seizure difference. 

A seizure is a sudden, uncontrolled electrical disturbance in the brain.It can cause changes in the patient’s behaviour, movements, feelings, convulsions and may alter levels of consciousness.

A convulsion is a medical condition where body muscles contract and relax rapidly and repeatedly, resulting in uncontrolled shaking. Because such seizures typically include convulsions, the term convulsion is sometimes used as a synonym for seizure.

Having two or more seizures at least 24 hours apart that aren’t brought on by an identifiable cause is generally considered to be epilepsy

A transient event caused by a temporary disruption in the brain’s electrical system. There are different types of seizures, which can be brought on by several conditions. including fever, head trauma, and stroke.

Generalized Seizure

A type of seizure that affects both sides of the brain at once. Generalized seizures can include tonic-clonic, absence seizures and atonic seizures, each of which may have different causes and symptoms.

Absence Seizures aka Petit Mal

These were called the Petit Mal Seizures in the past. Absence seizures may not always be recognized as seizures at first and they’re most common in children. Besides, they may last but for a few seconds.

Symptoms, which last for about 10 seconds, include:

1. Sudden stopping of activity
2. Blankly stare into space
3. Automatisms like lip smacking, chewing, or eye fluttering are signs of epilepsy

Atypical Absence Seizures

These are less common. They:

• Last longer than 10 seconds
• Start and stop gradually rather than abruptly
• Are more likely to cause falling
• May include automatisms such as blinking, eye fluttering, lip smacking, chewing movements, rubbing fingers together, or other repetitive hand motions

Tonic Seizures

Tonic seizures happen most often during sleep. Symptoms include:

• Muscles in the arms, legs, and back suddenly stiffening
• Typical duration of 20 seconds or less
• Possible loss of consciousness and falling

Atonic Seizures

These seizures are nicknamed “drop seizures” and they’re the opposite of tonic seizures. When they occur:

• Muscles become limp.
• The entire body or just the head, neck, and trunk may be affected.
• Patient may collapse, if standing.
• There may be some loss of awareness

The injury risk is high with this type of epilepsy. Hence such patients are advised to wear protective gear for your head.

Myoclonic Seizures

These can occur one after another in a short period of time or just occasionally. These seizures:

• Cause short jerks of your arms or legs
• Are typically on both sides of your body
• Last just a second or two

Clonic Seizures

Clonic seizures are similar to myoclonic seizures, though they can last from a few seconds to a minute. They involve:

• Repetitive short jerks of the patient’s arms or legs
• Both sides of the body may be involved in some cases
• Clonic seizures by themselves are rare and usually occur only in infants

Tonic-Clonic Seizures or Grand Mal

A type of seizure, formerly called a ‘grand mal’ seizure, that causes uncontrolled jerking and stiffness of the arms, legs, or body, and loss of consciousness or awareness. These seizures have a specific course of events. They can last up to three minutes and involve:

• Loss of consciousness, which usually comes on quite suddenly
• Tonic phase: muscles in arms, legs, back, and chest become stiff
• Clonic phase: jerking and twitching muscles
• As the patient’s body begins to relax and slowly regains consciousness, he/she may lose control of his/her bladder and/or bowels, meaning the patient will pass urine or stools.
• The patient may awaken feeling sleepy, confused, irritable and depressed.

Status Epilepticus

This is condition which requires urgent help and medical treatment. Here the seizure lasts longer than five minutes or seizures occur close together without a recovery period between them.

Status epilepticus can be convulsive and non-convulsive; both requiring emergency treatment.

Other signs:

Not everyone has all of these symptoms, and again, the ones that one patient experience will depend on the classification of epilepsy he/she is having.

Most people suffering from it https://fotokniga.kiev.ua don’t remember their seizures or what was happening before they occurred.

If you have suffered a seizure, it is important to ask anyone who has seen one of your seizures, how it presented and what was going on at the time. Ideally the same person should describe the seizure to your doctor.

• Contraction and jerking of muscles
• Loss of consciousness, loss of awareness
• Purposeless and repetitive movements done without thought
• Weakness: It can occur in any area of the body, like the arms or legs.
• Anxiety is often felt before a seizure and this can be a forewarning of a seizure
• Staring into space is another known symptom
• Other symptoms are brief automatic movements and aura, meaning a forewarning
• It is essential to identify auras and their types as they give a forewarning of an epileptic attack
• Types of auras: Visual like seeing bright flashes of light, dark spots, or tunnel vision, blindness, hallucinations, illusions, and distorted scenery where everything surrounding the patient appears to be larger than normal
• Smell auras: unpleasant smells
• Hearing auras: Hearing a ringing or buzzing, hearing distorted sounds or voices speaking
• Somatosensory auras: Tingling sensation, a feeling of moving even when stationary, a need to move
• Taste auras: Abnormal tastes like metallic taste or taste of food without eating anything
• Abdominal auras: Nausea, stomach upset, or stomach pressure
• Motor auras: Repetitive movements or a limb or weakness. Feeling cold, shivers, goosebumps
• Psychic: Sudden fear, impending doom, déjà vu experiences

Auras vary considerably from person to person but are roughly the same from seizure to seizure. Also the symptoms depends on its types.

Focal symptoms of epilepsy

Focal seizures are the most common type of epileptic seizure. They involve just one area or one side of your brain. They come in two forms.

Focal Aware Seizures

This type of seizure is also commonly referred to as an aura. During a focal aware seizure:

• Patient is awake and aware.
• The patient may not be able to respond.
• Patient may have muscle jerking, stiffening, limpness, or other symptoms.
• The duration can be just a few seconds to a couple of minutes.

Focal Impaired Awareness Seizures

This type of seizure involves numerous symptoms, which vary depending on the area of the brain where they occur. Symptoms, which can last a minute or two, may include:

• Unawareness or loss of consciousness
• Preceding aura or focal aware seizure (possible)
• Automatisms including repetitive tapping; rapid blinking; repeating words or phrases; grunting; repetitive hand movements; picking or fumbling at clothes or objects; lip smacking, chewing, mumbling, swallowing; complex acts like shuffling cards; dramatic acts like laughing, crying, screaming, or removing clothes

Complications

There are potential complications of seizures depending on when and where the patient suffers them:

• Drowning: The risk of drowning while swimming or taking a bath is much higher in an epileptic patient because of the risk of having a seizure while in the water. This risk goes down as the interval between seizures increases.
• Falls: Having a seizure can result in head injury, fractures in bones and general injuries.
• Car accidents: Having a seizure while driving can cause a car accident. Hence it is mandatory to get a medical examination with full history done from a qualified and skilled doctor.
• Emotional issues: Anxiety, depression, and suicidal thoughts and behaviours occur in epilepstic patients.
• Luckily life-threatening complications of it don’t happen often. Examples are:
  • Status epilepticus: This is a seizure that lasts for more than five minutes or the seizures are repeated without completely waking up in between. This condition can result in brain damage or death.
  • Sudden, unexpected death: This occurs rarely in epileptic patients and no one knows the exact cause.’

Todd’s Paralysis

Todd’s paralysis is the paralysis that may sometime occur after a seizure.

It is a neurological condition that presents as a period of paralysis following a seizure. This period of temporary weakness in your body can last for a few seconds, a few minutes, or several hours.

Todd’s paralysis tends to affect one side of the body at a time. Although Todd’s paralysis is very similar to a Cerebrovascular stroke, it only occurs after a seizure. In most cases, Todd’s paralysis occurs in the part of the body that was affected by the seizure.

Symptoms

• Weakness of a limb, such as your hand, arm, or leg
• Numbness
• Slurred speech
• Disorientation

The good news is that Todd’s paralysis symptoms don’t require any special treatment. The weakness, numbness, and vision or speech difficulties gradually go away on their own.

Epilepsy in Women

Epileptic women’s face some special problems concerning menstruation, contraception, and pregnancy, since hormonal fluctuations can affect seizure activity. Specifically, oestrogen may heighten seizure activity, while progesterone may reduce seizures.

Menstruation

During puberty, a woman’s body makes oestrogen and progesterone. Because of this increase in hormones, girls with it may see an increase in the frequency of their seizures at this point in their life.

Some women may also experience an increase in the frequency of their seizures around their menstrual period. This is known as catamenial epilepsy, seizures occurring around a woman’s menstrual cycle may need additional management.

Use of Contraception

Some epilepstic medications may counteract the effects of contraceptive pills, meaning the patient could get pregnant even if she is taking contraceptives.

Conversely, oral contraceptive pills may decrease the effectiveness of anti-seizure medication and may cause breakthrough seizures.

Epilepsy in Pregnancy

The body of every epileptic women responds differently to pregnancy. Most women have the same number of seizures during pregnancy as they did before, though some may have fewer or more. Seizures during pregnancy are dangerous for the baby and can lead to miscarriage, preterm delivery and premature birth, so it’s important to keep seizures to a minimum during pregnancy. Medication for epilepsy patients who become pregnant may have to be adjusted both to reduce seizures and protect the baby.

Childbirth

Seizures don’t usually occur during labour, so delivering a baby can be done without complications. Even if seizures occur while an epileptic patient is in labour, doctors can stop it with intravenous medication.

Special care must be taken during breast feeding of the baby by ladies taking anti epilepsy medicines, doctors must be consulted often.

Epilepsy treatment

Epilepsy medications for epilepsy management

The biggest question for an epileptic patient is, can epilepsy be cured? 

 Epilepsy test are dreadful. Patients will often need to take medication for the rest of their life. But if a brain disease has gone away and there have been no seizures for a long time, stopping the use of medicines is less likely to be a problem. Patients are advised to never stop medicines on their own accord as that may lead to increase in seizures.

Commonly used epilepsy drugs to prevent seizures are:

• Valproic acid
• Phenytoin
• Ethosuximide
• Phenobarbital
• Divalproex
• Diazepam
• Carbamazepine
• Primidone

The above medicines are sold under various brand names and strengths. They require a doctor’s prescription, sometimes in duplicate. Patients or their relatives should never take medicines on their own for epilepsy treatment. Samarth hospital provides the best epilepsy treatment in India. And best epilepsy doctors in Mumbai is Dr. Ravindra Patil

Epilepsy Surgery

Poorly controlled epilepsy can result in a number of complications and health risks, including the following:

• Physical injuries during a seizure
• Drowning, if the seizure occurs during a bath or swimming
• Depression and anxiety
  Developmental delays in children
• Sudden death, a rare complication of epilepsy
• Worsening memory or other thinking skills

Its diagnosis is followed by surgery that removes an area of the brain where seizures occur. Doctor ravindra patil is the best epilepsy doctors in Maharashtra.

Epilepsy surgery is most effective when seizures always occur in a single location in the brain. Epilepsy surgery is not the first line of treatment but is considered when at least two anti-seizure medications have failed to control seizures. A number of pre-surgical tests are necessary to determine whether the patient is eligible for epilepsy surgery.

Epilepsy surgery will help one in epilepsy management but only be considered when medications do not control seizures. This is known as medically refractory epilepsy or drug-resistant epilepsy. The goal of epilepsy surgery is to stop seizures or limit their severity with or without the use of medications. We recommend to consult best doctor for epilepsy in india. Average epilepsy surgery cost in india is 70k.

Coping with Epilepsy

First and foremost, never stop your medication.

As you learn to cope with epilepsy, be patient with yourself. Expect to have better times and worse times, and know that what you’re going through is common and natural. To stand by epileptic patient, National Epilepsy day is celebrated on 17 November each year.

Changes that seem challenging or impossible now will eventually become second nature. Take on small changes, one at a time, and keep moving forward. And don’t hesitate to consult doctors like neurologists and psychiatrists. Know that you are not alone in this.