At least one person in every two hundred has epilepsy. A chronic disorder in which nerve cells of the brain from time to time release electrical impulses, causing a temporary malfunction of the nerve cells of the brain. This sudden disturbance in the nerve cells causes seizures. A very old disease mentioned in the Code of Hammurabi, epilepsy is also the subject of the earliest of scientific work to survive, The Sacred Disease, attributed to the Greek Hippocrates. The most prominent feature of epilepsy is the seizure; That is not to say that seizures occur in epileptics only. The seizure is a complex symptom, with many varieties, causes, and treatments.
Virtually anyone can have a seizure under the right circumstances; those who experience a seizure have a low seizure threshold. . Seizures can have many causes, brain injury, poisoning, head trauma and stroke, are some examples, however, epileptic seizures are generally reoccurring without treatment. Originating from the central nervous system, most seizures start from around the site of brain injury. At the point where the injury occurred, brain neurons are destroyed; the nearby neurons remain functioning, but crippled. This point of destroyed neurons is called the epileptic focus, the neurons within a focus are electrically unstable, and lacking powers of inhibition they exert an electrical influence. While one damaged neuron is far to small to effect the brain, neurons are organized into groups of several hundreds of thousands. These groups of neurons all discharge electricity together, causing surrounding neurons to discharge as well and those neurons cause the neurons around it to discharge in a dominoes effect situation. The result of this domino effect is a seizure discharge; a neural impulse that rapidly runs out of control and causes such disruption to normal brain activity that a fit develops. While this is the general way that seizure discharge spreads, seizure discharge spreads differently for every type of seizure.
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Variation of the spread of electrical discharge seizure involves the difference between partial and generalized seizures. Partial seizures caused by abnormal electrical discharge originate from only one specific area of the brain, where in a generalized seizure the entire brain is involved. Partial seizures may become generalized if the electric discharge originating from the focus is strong enough to spread through the entire brain. However, if a partial seizure is progressing towards becoming generalized, the symptoms will be obvious, so it can be distinguished between generalized epilepsy. The effects that a seizure discharge has on a patients body depends on where the discharge originates from, experiencing different feelings . For example, if the part of the brain that controls the eye is effected, the patient may hallucinate flashing lights.
While the symptoms of a seizure are effected by the area that the electrical discharge comes from, they are also classified by generalized seizures , partial seizures and status epileptic seizures. From these three categories, the seizures are then distinguished by subcategories that name and describe the symptoms of each seizure. Generalized seizures include generalized convulsive seizures and generalized non convulsive seizures. While partial seizures consist of those with simple symptoms, and those with complex symptoms. Status epileptic seizures involve seizures from other subcategories that involve special instances, such as recurring or increased seizures.
Most people have seen someone suffer a major epileptic fit, sudden loss of consciousness, jerking of the arms and legs has been viewed. This type of seizure is known as either a grand mal or a tonic-clonic seizure. During a grand mal fit a brief warning, may be experienced, half of all tonic-clonic fits begin with this type of partial seizure, this aura consists of a feeling of sinking or rising in the pit of the stomach, a panic stricken feeling of anxiety, fluttering in the abdomen, buzzing in ears, hallucination of flashing lights, and experience strange tastes or smells. After the aura the patient may groan or cry out just before complete consciousness is lost. The tonic stage will immediately follow, the seizure discharge that creates a tonic-clonic fit effects the motor cortex over both hemispheres, causing the muscles to spasm at the same time consciousness is lost. This sudden contraction of all of the limbs will cause the patient to fall down, because the contraction of the chest muscles forces air out the patients breathing will stop and the lips will become blue. The patients eyes will roll up, and the jaws will be clenched. This will last about thirty seconds before the “clonic phase” is started. The clonic stage relaxes the muscles momentarily allowing the patient to breathe. The muscles will then begin to relax and contract, as these contractions grow stronger the patient will begin to convulse violently. The patient may urinate or defecate as the bladder and bowels relax. This stage may last up to two minutes, at which point the patient regains consciousness. The patient will be confused, fatigued, and sore, a headache is common. This period of confusion is called the twilight state , the patient will be clumsy and act in a drunken manner. Children may suffer from paralysis down one side of the body that lasts for up to thirty six hours.
The Term Paper on Epilepsy Decision Partial Seizure
... uncommon seizure. All these seizures are divided into several issues. The partial seizure is divided into simple partial seizure and complex seizure. In the simple partial seizure the epileptic activity ... cause this abnormal discharge that may come from a localized area of the brain. This is the situation in patients with epilepsy ...
Myoclonic seizures are an additional form of generalized seizures. In a myoclonic seizure, the muscles are contracted by sudden symmetrical, shock-like muscular jerks. Almost eighty percent of the adult population are subject to the occasional nocturnal myoclonus. A variation of a myoclonic seizure, this fit starts at the beginning or immediately before waking of sleep. It is characterized by a sudden quick convulsive kick, followed by a falling sensation.
Another example of a generalized seizure is a typical absence seizure also known as a petit mal . Not as dramatic as a grand mal, an absence seizure is a non-convulsive seizure that may not even be noticed at first. Absence seizures begin in early childhood, and are most likely to cease at puberty. In a typical absence seizure the patient will stare vacantly for a few seconds, a brief fluttering of the eye will occur and the patient will seem to be out of contact with his surroundings. Absence seizure may occur repeatedly, often in the same day.
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Partial seizures, unlike generalized, are characterized by complex and simple symptoms. One type of focal seizure is a simple motor seizure, involves a fit that travels up and down the body, but only on one side. Another form of a partial seizure is a complex partial seizure. A complex partial seizure alters the patients awareness, and commonly a chomping movement of the jaw may occur. The most common example is where discharge originating from a temporal lobe of the brain causes the patient to have a “deja vu” feeling.
The third classification of a seizure is status epileptic. Status Epileptic occurs when a seizure continues for more than thirty minutes, or when one seizure follows another without recovery in between. If this occurs the patient must seek emergency medical treatment immediately, because this is typically followed by an increasing number of seizures to follow. Commonly Diazepam distributed rectally will prevent the development of status epileptic once it occurs. In this case of status epileptic the patient must be closely watched especially after the injection of Diazepam.
Fortunately for epileptics there are many methods of treatment available, both behavioral and through prescribed drugs. Anti-epileptic drugs may be taken to prevent seizures from occurring. This medication must be taken regularly, and it may be necessary for many years. Because there are so many different types of seizures and varieties of epilepsy, there are also many different drugs available. Epileptic drugs taken over a long period of time may cause the patient chronic side effects, while this is an inevitable aspect of anti-epileptic medication, it can be minimized by keeping the patients drug therapy as simple as possible. Another way to control seizure is through behavioral treatment; Most commonly through bio-feedback. Bio-feedback is a technique that increases self-esteem by giving the patient a sense of control. It is helpful for those who have experienced partial or secondarily generalized seizures that begin with a warning . Over time through bio-feedback patients can learn mental techniques to regulate electrical activity in the brain and stop a seizure from spreading.
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