Understanding epilepsy
Dr.Kut | Feb 22, 2010 | Comments 0
Epilepsy is a neurological disorder which affects of the nervous system and which manifests itself in form of seizures. A seizure is a sudden electrical activity in the brain which hits a person like an electric shock. The time of the seizure varies from person to person. The intensity of the seizure also changes and anybody can get epilepsy for no reasons known yet.
Some medical studies consider that it is a hereditary disease; however, not all patients of epilepsy have a family history either. Epilepsy is very common and it affects one in 100 people in the United States alone. However, it has been found that people that suffer simple seizures are prone to get them for various reasons and those that get strong seizures only get them under critical conditions.
Another problem that the medical science is having in diagnosing and treating epilepsy is that there is no pattern to be followed in regards to a seizure and an injury to the brain. For example, people can have an injury and get a seizure after six months, which may or may not determine whether this is due to the accident or it has some underlined effects that are not clear to science yet.
There is a classification done to try and understand the different kinds of epilepsy and the kind of seizure that you may experience in regards to this group. For example, symptomatic epilepsy is the kind where you have an idea of the reasons for the disease and which include a head injury, a stroke or a scar in the brain. Meningitis can also cause seizures and a brain scan will be able to give you a better picture of the actual problem in this case.
Idiopathic epilepsy is the kind of epilepsy that occurs without any known causes. The seizures are short and not very often and patients suffering from this kind of epilepsy lead a normal life and respond well to treatment.
When these two kinds of epilepsy are ruled out then there is the cryptogenic epilepsy where there is the possibility of some physical reason behind the seizures in the first place which needs to be investigated thoroughly.
It is extremely difficult to diagnose epilepsy as such because a patient may not be aware of what really happens to them when they get a seizure. Once you start to have these problems, it is highly recommended to have company with you at all times to avoid any kind of accidents due to the danger of having an attack in the middle of nowhere.
Children are very prone to develop epilepsy between the ages of 1 and 10 years, and some of the characteristics of these children include being under weight or children with abnormal brain structures. However, the risks of having epilepsy after the age of 10 diminish a lot, although anybody that suffers bleeding in the brain, or people with cerebral palsy can also develop epilepsy easily.
Anti epileptic drugs are very common and although they don’t really cure the disease, they help a lot in creating a balanced life for the patient. This disease affects people in different ways and some will get relieve after they grow older in life were as some will never seem to find rest from this problem.
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