Epilepsy: What is it, Causes, Symptoms and Treatment

Epilepsy, also known as epilepsy, is a neurological disease that occurs in the form of seizures. Epilepsy, caused by abnormal electrical activity in brain cells, causes temporary disruption of a person’s brain activity. The worldwide prevalence of epilepsy, which is characterized by short seizure periods, is 1%. Epilepsy, the 4th most common neurological disease, can occur at almost any age.

What is Epilepsy?

Epilepsy, which mostly occurs as random seizures, develops due to different reasons and is recurrent. Epilepsy, a neurological disorder, occurs due to abnormal electrical activity in a group of neurons in the brain. During a seizure, which occurs due to disruption of electrical activity, temporary impairments occur in the person’s brain functions. There are many different types of epileptic seizures. However, it is often examined in two different types: seizures that are limited to a part of the brain (partial) and seizures that begin widely in the brain (generalized). Although the symptoms that occur from time to time during an epileptic seizure are faint, uncontrollable body movements usually occur due to deterioration of brain functions. Epileptic seizures usually last between 30 seconds and 2 minutes. However, epileptic seizures lasting longer than 5 minutes may also occur. In the presence of this type of epileptic seizures, the person needs urgent medical help. Symptoms of epilepsy, which may vary from person to person, are mostly seen as inability to control body movements, fainting, tremors, loss of consciousness and memory, urinary incontinence, sensitivity to odors, fatigue and confusion after a seizure. Before delving into the symptoms of epilepsy, “What are the types of epilepsy? It is necessary to answer the question.

What are the Types of Epilepsy?

Epilepsy disease can be classified according to the region of the brain affected. Some people may have more than one type of epilepsy. Common types of epilepsy can be listed as follows:

• Absence Seizures: In absence seizures, which are more common in childhood, the person appears to be lost in thought from the outside. In absence seizures, which are characterized by the child suddenly becoming silent while speaking, the child remains motionless for approximately 10 seconds. Does not answer the questions asked. During an absence seizure seen in adults, the person says meaningless words, walks, and makes repetitive movements with his hands and/or lips. In absence seizures, the duration of the seizure is short and the person himself does not remember what happened during the seizure.
• Simple Partial Seizures: During a simple partial seizure that develops in 3 different ways, the person is conscious. This type of seizure most often originates from one of the frontal, temporal, and parietal lobes of the patient’s brain. Seizures originating from the temporal lobe are defined as motor seizures. During a motor seizure, the person experiences a bad smell or taste. He suddenly becomes frightened and feels dizzy. Symptoms such as a feeling of deja vu, perception and memory problems, drowsiness, sweating and nausea occur. During a motor seizure, movements such as moving the person’s head left and right or lifting his arm up may occur. The side to which the person raises his arm or turns his head during the seizure is an indicator of which frontal lobe is affected. In other words, if the person turns his head to the left during the seizure, the seizure originates from the left side of the frontal lobe. Due to the presence of the speech center in the frontal lobe, the person develops a temporary speech disorder. After the seizure, the person may experience short-term weakness or temporary paralysis. The brain region where body sensations are perceived is the parietal lobe. In this situation, which causes sensory seizures, the person may feel strange emotions. Temporary pain and numbness may occur.
• Complex Partial Seizures: During a complex partial seizure where the person does not remember the moment of the seizure, the person does not fall to the ground. Licking, swallowing and chewing movements can be made. The person may also walk around and tug at their clothes.
• Generalized Seizures: In the generalized seizure type, which is the first type of seizure that comes to mind when epilepsy or epilepsy crisis is mentioned, the person first becomes stiff and then falls to the ground. All the muscles in your body contract and relax involuntarily. The person is unconscious during the seizure and does not remember anything after the seizure. Once the generalized seizure ends, the person slowly regains consciousness. He is often exhausted and confused.

What are the symptoms of epilepsy?

Although the symptoms of epilepsy vary between types of the disease, the general symptoms of epilepsy can be listed as follows:

• Loss of Consciousness: The person cannot control or remember what happened during the seizure.
• Muscle Contraction: During a seizure, all the person’s muscles contract and relax involuntarily. This causes the person to tremble and convulse.
• Turning Head and Eyes to One Side: During a seizure, the person may move his head and eyes to the right or left.
• Urinary Incontinence: During a seizure, the person may leak urine due to his/her inability to control his/her muscles.
• Confusion After the Seizure: When the seizure ends, the person is tired and confused.

What are the symptoms that occur with epilepsy?

In addition to the common epilepsy symptoms, different symptoms may occur depending on the type of seizure experienced. Some of these symptoms can be listed as follows:

• Involuntary muscle movements,
• repetition of movements,
• sudden fall,
• strange behavior and speech,
• Differentiation in the senses of taste, smell, touch and vision,
• Diving by focusing on one point for a short time,
• Dropping hand held objects
• unresponsiveness,
• Saying unintelligible words,
• Leaving the questions asked unanswered.

What Causes Epilepsy?

Epilepsy may occur due to genetics, congenital anomalies and birth trauma. In addition, many different factors such as some cerebrovascular diseases, brain inflammation, head trauma, brain hemorrhage, the presence of a tumor, having a high fever in childhood and alcohol use may play a role in the formation of epilepsy. However, in many epilepsy patients, the factor causing the seizure cannot be detected.

What are the Stages of Epilepsy?

Some people may feel some symptoms before epilepsy occurs. If the seizure originates from a small area of ​​the brain, these symptoms that can be felt in some cases before the seizure are called aura. These symptoms may also vary depending on the area in the brain where abnormal electrical activity occurs. Symptoms that occur before an epileptic seizure can be listed as follows:

• Numbness: A person may feel numbness in a certain part of his body.
• Vision and Hearing Loss: There may be a difference in a person’s vision or hearing.
• Smell: Before the seizure, the person may smell bad.
• Nausea: A feeling of pressure or nausea may occur in the stomach.
• Mood Change: The person may suddenly feel a sense of fear.

How to Diagnose Epilepsy?

The person who has an epileptic seizure does not remember what he experienced. For this reason, it is recommended that the person’s relative who was with the person during the seizure also visit the doctor so that the physician can take a detailed anamnesis. The physician asks questions about the duration and pattern of the seizure. Radiological imaging examinations such as MRI, CT, PET and EEG can be performed to clarify the diagnosis of epilepsy. In the light of the findings obtained from the examination and radiological imaging results, the person is diagnosed with epilepsy.

How to Treat Epilepsy?

The aim of epilepsy treatment is to reduce the person’s seizure frequency and completely prevent seizures.

Epilepsy treatment is done with medication. Medicines suitable for the person diagnosed with epilepsy are prescribed by the physician. It is important to use these drugs regularly at the dose determined by the physician.

In cases that do not respond adequately to medications, that is, epilepsies that are resistant to medication, surgical treatment can also be applied if appropriate indications are found in additional examinations, taking into account the type, shape, number of seizures in the patient, and multiple drug use.