Bio 201 Epilepsy Research Paper

BIO 201
October 17th, 2012
Dr. Sillanpaa

Epilepsy

Epilepsy is a neurological condition in which affects the nervous system and is also known as a seizure disorder. It is normally diagnosed after a person has had two or more seizures that weren 't caused by a known medical condition like extremely low blood sugar or alcohol withdrawal. The seizures in epilepsy may be related to a brain injury or a family tendency but most of the time it unfortunately unknown. “Epilepsy”, the word itself, does not indicate anything about the cause of the person 's seizures, what type they are or how severe they can or may be. Epilepsy is the condition of recurrent spontaneous seizures arising from abnormal electrical activity within the brain. Epileptogenesis
is the process by which the normal brain becomes prone to epilepsy. Signs and symptoms: Symptoms may be motor, sensory, psychic (which is the states of consciousness), and/or autonomic (involuntary activity controlled by the autonomic nervous system). While there is a wide range of potential signs and symptoms, for most patients symptoms are varied. Motor signs could include, eye movements and turning of the head to the same side, asymmetrical posture of the limps, alternating contraction and relaxation of muscles or speech arrest. Sensory symptoms could include the following of seeing flashing lights or colors, including illusions and hallucinations, hearing hum, buzz or hissing noises, experiencing unpleasant odors or tastes or dizziness or lightheadedness. Autonomic signs and symptoms could include nausea, vomiting, goose bumps, pupillary dilation, sweating or rapid heart rate. Psychological symptoms could include detachment, depersonalization, dreamy state, time distortion, unprovoked emotions, or memory distortion, for example, flashback, deja vu and several others. Other symptoms depend on the type of seizure affiliated with epilepsy and will be detailed in the next paragraph.
All symptoms may vary depending on the type of seizures the patient may get. Pathological: There are two categories of seizures in epilepsy; generalized and focal.
Generalized seizures are caused by abnormal electrical impulses in the brain and typically occur with little or no warning. There are six types of generalized seizures. The first is tonic-clonic seizure also known as grand-mal. This seizure can cause you to lose consciousness and often cause you to collapse all together. When this happens, your body becomes stiff, during what is called the “tonic” phase and the “clonic” phase is when muscles start to contract and the body starts to jerk. The jaw clamps shut and you could bite your tongue. Your bladder could contract and cause you to urinate. After about two minutes you fall into a deep sleep. This is the most common seizure. Second is called absence seizure, petit mal, during these brief episodes, you being to lose awareness and stare blankly. Usually here, there are no other symptoms. They usually last for 5 to 10 seconds but can be longer and may occur several times a day. Third, myoclonic seizures are very brief ones that cause the body to jerk, as if shocked by electricity for couple
of seconds. The jerks range from a single muscle jerk to involvement of the entire body. Clonic seizure is the fourth of the generalized seizures. There include rhythmic jerking motions of the arms and legs, sometimes on both sides of the body. The fifth is tonic seizures and these cause your muscles to suddenly stiffen, sometimes as long as 15 to 25 seconds and if you’re standing, you’ll typically fall. Lastly for generalized seizures you have akinetic or atonic seizure. In this, it causes your muscles to relax and lose strength, particularly in the arms and legs. Although you usually remain conscious, it can cause you to suddenly fall and lead to injuries. These are also called drop attacks. Focal seizures, also known as local and partial seizures, are caused by abnormal electrical activity in a specific, smaller portion of the brain. The part of the brain affected that causes the seizure us called the seizure focus. These types of seizures are divided into simple and complex seizures. We have three different type of focal seizures, simple focal, complex focal and secondarily generalized seizures which are focal seizures that evolve into generalized ones. Simple focal seizures are where you remain conscious. You may not be able to speak or move until the seizure is over. Usually consists of uncontrollable movements and experience untriggered, random emotions. This type of seizure could also include odd sensations such as odd smells or sounds. Typically these symptoms last less than a minute. Complex focal seizures are where you are not fully conscious and may appear to be in a dreamlike state. It starts with a blank stare and sometimes includes involuntarily chewing, walking, fidgeting or other repetitive movements and simple actions. These actions are usually unorganized or confused. These seizures also last up to a minute. And lastly is a secondary generalized seizure in which begin as a focal seizure but develop into a generalized one as the electrical abnormality spreads throughout the brain. You could start out fully conscious and lose consciousness and experience convulsions as it develops. Diagnosis: It has been said that it can be difficult knowing if one is ongoing a seizure and diagnosing the type of seizure or having epilepsy. There may be many other disorders that can cause some changes in behavior that are in relation and could be confused with epilepsy. What happens during the seizure is the most important detail of information in diagnosis. The information that will be needed to diagnose the patient would be blood tests, EEG tests, details of the medical history, and brain images such as CT and MRI scans. These here give notice of abnormal electrical activity within the brain and what the brain looks like. First step would be to see a doctor if you have had a big, obvious seizure because the chances if you had one, you will have another within 6 months have increased 50%. And, unfortunately, if you have had two, your chances of more increases by 80%. If your first seizure occurred at the time of an injury or infection of the brain, you are more likely to develop epilepsy than if you had not had a seizure in that situation. Treatment: Typically epilepsy is treated by medication.
If that doesn 't work they proceed to doing surgery of the brain. Generally, most people can become seizure free by using some form of an anti-epileptic drug. Others, it will just decrease the chances of a recurrence seizures and their intensity. More than half of the children that have seizures live a life of seizure free when starting the medication at a young age. Although this sounds easy, finding the perfect medication for their specific seizure is complex. Typically one will start out with a lower dosage and it raises if seizures still occur, once controlled they stop upping the dose. Majority of the medications come with several symptoms such as dizziness, weight gain, loss of bone density, skin rashes, loss of coordinations and speech problems. Severe cases of symptoms include depression, suicidal thoughts, severe rash, inflammation of some organs. Surgery is most commonly done when your test results come back showing an originate in a small, yet well defined area of the brain that doesn 't interfere with your senses. Now if the portion of the brain interferes with your senses, they preform a different kind of surgery which consists of a series of cuts throughout the brain to prevent the seizures from spreading to other parts of the brain. Next month, the month of November is actually the month for awareness of Epilepsy. The ribbon color is a light purple, lavender. Only about 1 of 20 epileptics are sensitive
to light flickers or photosensitive. The contrast or change in light can trigger a seizure. Many people believe you can swallow your tongue while having a seizure but the truth is you can only injure it with extreme biting. Thankfully, epilepsy is not a lifelong disorder. Only 25% of those who develop seizures develop a difficulty in controlling their seizure.

WORKS CITED

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