Taking antiseizure medications can reduce the frequency of seizures and helps minimize this risk. According to Brain: A Journal of Neurology , the risk of sudden death may also be slightly higher shortly after you first start experiencing seizures. Epilepsy is a chronic disorder that causes unprovoked, recurrent seizures.
Find out what causes it, who's at risk, how it's diagnosed, and more. Types of epilepsy are classified by the types of seizures involved.
Epilepsy is a nervous system disorder that causes seizures. Absence seizures, also called petit mal seizures, are brief and may not have noticeable…. Benign Rolandic epilepsy is the most common type of childhood epilepsy.
It typically has an excellent outlook, and most children outgrow it by age Photosensitive seizures can be triggered by exposure to flashing lights on screens or natural light as well as static images with contrasting…. Learn more about types of seizures, causes and symptoms, and how you can help someone having…. Learn about febrile seizures, including their symptoms, causes, and treatment options. Health Conditions Discover Plan Connect.
The type of injuries a person may get depends on the type of seizure , how long the seizure lasts, where the seizure occurs, and if it develops into an emergency. More serious problems, such as broken bones, concussions, head injury with bleeding into the brain, or breathing problems, usually are seen in people who have generalized seizures with falls, long seizures, or repeated or clusters of seizures.
The overall risk of dying is 1. The risk of dying among children with epilepsy may be a bit higher since most children without epilepsy have very low risks. A long convulsive seizure called " tonic-clonic or convulsive status epilepticus " is a medical emergency. Generally speaking, a generalized tonic-clonic seizure lasting 5 minutes or longer is a medical emergency. SUDEP is likely the most common disease-related cause of death in people with epilepsy. You usually need to take the medicine every day.
Your specialist will start you on a low dose and gradually increase it until your seizures stop. If the first medicine you try does not work, your doctor may recommend trying another type. It's important you follow any advice about when to take AEDs and how much to take.
Never suddenly stop taking an AED — doing so could cause a seizure. If you have not had a seizure for a few years, ask your doctor if you might be able to stop treatment. If they think it's safe, your dose will be reduced gradually over time.
While taking AEDs, do not take any other medicines, including over-the-counter medicines or complementary medicines, without speaking to your GP or specialist. Other medicines could affect how well your AED works. Side effects are common when starting treatment with AEDs. Some may appear soon after starting treatment and pass in a few days or weeks, while others may not appear for a few weeks.
Contact your GP or specialist if you have symptoms similar to being drunk, such as unsteadiness, poor concentration and being sick. This could mean your dose is too high. For information about the side effects of your medicine, check the information leaflet that comes with it. In these cases, there's a good chance that your seizures could stop completely after surgery. If your epilepsy is poorly controlled after trying several AEDs, you may be referred to a specialist epilepsy centre to see if surgery might be possible.
The results of these tests will help you and your specialist decide if surgery is an option for you, and what the result of surgery might be. Surgery for epilepsy is usually carried out under general anaesthetic , where you're asleep. The surgeon makes a small cut in your scalp and creates an opening in your skull so they can remove the affected part of the brain. Your seizures may not stop straight away, so you might need to keep taking AEDs for 1 to 2 years. There's a risk of complications from surgery, such as problems with your memory, mood or vision.
It is important to seek immediate medical treatment if a person severely injures themselves, has a seizure in water, or has an underlying health condition. People are more likely to have more than one tonic-clonic seizure in the days after the first one. However, the risk decreases as time passes after the first tonic-clonic seizure.
People may find tonic-clonic seizures scary to experience, but these seizures do not often require medical treatment. People with epilepsy can also take antiepileptic medications. If a person treats their epilepsy, they are less likely to continue having tonic-clonic seizures. Epilepsy is a fairly common neurological condition characterized by recurrent seizures.
In this article, learn about the different types of epilepsy…. Nocturnal seizures occur when a person is asleep. As well as typical seizure symptoms, they may increase the risk of other complications. Learn more…. A look at complex partial seizures, a form of seizure that occurs in just one part of the brain. Included is what to do if someone has a seizure.
Simple partial seizures are a form of seizure where a person does not lose consciousness. Learn about the symptoms, causes, and treatment options here. Convulsions are common in some types of seizures and rare in a few other conditions.
Learn more about the causes of convulsions and what to do if…. What is a tonic-clonic seizure?
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