What Is Epilepsy?

Epilepsy is a chronic brain disorder that causes seizures. It affects the way your brain functions, and it can lead to problems with memory, cognition, behavior, and movement. Epilepsy can be caused by many different things — some of which you cannot control — but there are also many ways to treat epilepsy.

Epilepsy can develop at any age, but it usually begins between the ages of 2 and 10 years old. About 1 in 26 people will develop epilepsy during their lifetime. In the United States, about 3 million people have epilepsy, and about 200,000 new cases are diagnosed each year. Epilepsy is more common than autism or cerebral palsy combined.

Epilepsy can be caused by a number of different conditions, but it is not contagious or life-threatening. It can be managed with medicine and lifestyle changes.

Causes of Epilepsy

Epilepsy has many possible causes, which are usually grouped into two categories: structural and functional. Structural causes include brain tumors, injuries to the head, brain infections such as meningitis or encephalitis, stroke and other brain abnormalities. Functional causes include certain inherited conditions as well as some metabolic disorders like low blood sugar levels (hypoglycemia) and high blood sodium levels (hypernatremia).

What Is a Seizure?

Seizures are sudden, sometimes violent, disturbances in a person’s brain function. People who have epilepsy experience seizures on a regular basis; other people may experience them once or twice in their lives. The term “epilepsy” describes the tendency to have repeated seizures.

Seizures can be caused by problems with the brain itself, by a brain injury or by certain medical conditions such as strokes and heart attacks. People with epilepsy have abnormal electrical activity in their brains that causes them to lose consciousness briefly and sometimes convulse during a seizure.

There are different types of seizures, each with its own signs and symptoms:

Absence seizure: A staring spell that lasts just seconds but has a blank expression on the face and slightly twitching eyes; it may also involve rapid blinking and muscle jerking in one arm or leg.

Myoclonic seizure: Involuntary muscle jerking in one part of your body (most often an arm or leg).

Atonic seizure: Loss of muscle tone that can cause someone’s head to drop suddenly or their body to collapse.

Tonic-clonic seizure: Convulsions lasting two to three minutes during which people can’t walk properly because they lose control over their muscles.

A seizure occurs when a part of the brain becomes hyperactive and sends abnormal electrical signals to other parts of the brain. These electrical signals may cause temporary changes in behavior, sensations, feelings, movements, or thoughts.

A seizure can be caused by a variety of conditions that affect brain function. Such conditions include:

• Infections such as meningitis or encephalitis. These infections can be caused by bacteria or viruses.
• Brain tumors (although these are rare in children).
• Stroke (the most common cause of seizures during childhood).
• Head injuries due to accidents or falls (a common cause during infancy and early childhood).
• Inherited diseases such as Dravet syndrome or Lennox-Gastaut syndrome (rare in children younger than 5 years old).

What Are the Different Types of Seizures?

There are several different types of seizures. The main types are:

Generalized seizures. These are the most common type of seizure and involve both sides of the brain. Generalized seizures may be caused by a low blood sugar level (hypoglycemia), a brain infection or brain tumor, lack of oxygen to the brain (anoxia), head injury, or stroke.

Focal seizures. Focal seizures occur when abnormal electrical activity affects only one part of one side of the brain. Focal seizures can cause a variety of symptoms that include staring spells, convulsions, muscle twitches and movement in an arm or leg on one side of the body, hearing voices or music that isn’t actually there (auditory hallucinations), sudden jerks of an arm or leg on one side of the body (often called Jacksonian march), loss of awareness and memory for events just before and after the seizure starts (postictal period), confusion, and drowsiness. Focal seizures can also cause a loss of awareness but no convulsions — this is called a complex partial seizure.

Absence seizures occur when a person’s consciousness briefly becomes altered and they experience mental confusion lasting for only a few seconds.

Partial seizures begin in one area of the brain and can spread to other areas as they progress. Partial seizures may also be further classified as simple or complex, depending on their clinical features and EEG patterns. Simple partial seizures affect only a small part of the brain; they are often called auras or focal seizures and vary widely in their clinical manifestations (see below). Complex partial seizures affect larger parts of the brain and tend to last longer than simple partial seizures. Complex partial seizures often have a distinct beginning and end (segmental onset), with intervening normal behavior between the seizure onset and offset. They may present with impaired awareness, confusion, or hallucination during or after the seizure activity has ended.

What Are the Symptoms of a Seizure?

Convulsions, or seizures, are episodes in which a person experiences sudden and repeated contractions of the muscles. They often cause uncontrolled jerking or shaking movements and may be accompanied by temporary impairment of consciousness and behavior. Seizures can last from a few seconds to several minutes, but most last less than five minutes.

A seizure can be caused by physical injury, stroke, brain tumor, infection or poisoning. Some people have seizures because they have epilepsy, which is characterized by recurrent seizures. In other cases, no underlying cause is found.

Seizures are the result of abnormal electrical activity in the brain. They can cause a wide range of symptoms, including:

• Staring or unresponsiveness.
• Twitching or jerking movements, such as head-jerking, arm-flailing, leg kicking, and lip smacking.
• Loss of consciousness, which can last from a few seconds to more than 10 minutes. (Some people have no memory of what happened during their seizure.)
• If you think someone is having a seizure, don’t assume they’re acting out — get help right away!

What Causes a Seizure?

Seizures can be caused by many different things, including:

• Injury to the head or brain (such as from a car accident, fall, or blow to the head)
• Brain tumor or other growth in the brain
• Drug abuse (such as alcohol withdrawal)
• Alcoholism and other health problems can also lead to seizures.
• Injury or illness affecting the brain, such as stroke or meningitis
• Alcohol withdrawal syndrome
• Drug withdrawal syndrome, such as from heroin or benzodiazepines (e.g., Valium)
• Low blood sugar (hypoglycemia)
• Low levels of oxygen in the blood (hypoxia)
• High fever (pyrexia), especially in children younger than 3 months old with influenza or chickenpox infections

How Are Seizures Diagnosed?

Seizures are diagnosed based on your description of the seizure and the results of a physical examination. If you have had a seizure, you may be asked to have an electroencephalogram (EEG), which measures electrical activity in the brain.

If you have had a seizure, your doctor may order imaging tests to see if there’s anything abnormal about your brain structure or function, such as an MRI scan or CT scan.

If you continue to experience seizures despite treatment for epilepsy, you may need to undergo an invasive procedure called an electrocorticogram (ECoG). This test uses electrodes placed on the surface of your brain to record electrical activity in different parts of the brain during a seizure.

How Are Seizures Treated?

To treat a seizure, a doctor will prescribe antiepileptic drugs (AEDs), which can be taken as pills or in liquid form. These drugs help prevent seizures by controlling abnormal electrical activity in the brain. AEDs work for some people, but not everyone. As many as 30% of people with epilepsy will eventually stop taking them because of side effects or other reasons.

If medicine doesn’t work, surgery may be an option for some people. Surgery may also be an option if you have frequent seizures that don’t respond to medicine or if medicines are not safe for you because of other health conditions you have.

Can diet prevent Seizures?

A healthy diet has a lot to offer in the prevention of seizures. It is important to remember that not all foods are good for you, and some can actually cause seizures.

For instance, it is recommended that you stay away from high-sodium foods like potato chips, pretzels, and peanuts. These types of foods can trigger a seizure by increasing your sodium level. The body needs some sodium to function properly, but too much can cause problems.

It is also important to avoid alcohol in your diet because it can trigger seizures as well. Alcohol depresses the central nervous system and slows down brain function which could lead to a seizure.