All About Seizure Disorders

Archive for August, 2010

A large proportion of the patients happen to be conflicted with only one type of seizure while others can catch more than one type of seizures. And the symptoms vary depending on the various types of seizure.

Partial seizures, as its name implies, occur when only one side of the brain is affected. This type of seizures can be subdivided into simple partial seizures and complex partial seizures. In simple partial seizures, the beginning affected area is not very large, often just a small area of the brain. And that the abnormal electrical discharges will keep active within the small area and destroy the tissue of the area. That can explain why patients suffer pain in certain part of their body, such as arms, legs and so on. This is because the area which controls this part has been affected by seizures. All in all, though this is called simple partial seizures, never can you underestimate the impact they will make on healthy condition, regarding a simple form of seizure without timing medical treatment can end up growing in to a complex one, involving much more medical care to keep them under control.

With regard to complex partial seizures, it is the same as the simple partial seizures that it affects a small area of the brain first. But unlike the simple one which just keep active within that small area it originally domains, abnormal electrical discharges effects will never be satisfied with a small occupied area but rather crazy about capturing other nearby area. Patients of this type of seizures usually suffer butterflies in the stomach or lost of touch to the surroundings for about 1 to 2 minutes. During this period, a patient may begin to stare everything around him with a strange way. Some even fail to stop chewing or smacking their lips. The movements of their hands, arms and legs can be completely purposeless and the sounds they utter can totally make nonsense. Sometimes patients can easily lose temper when seizures attack them because they are having a hard time digesting what other people are saying and neither can they accept any kindly help from other people.

Conversation does have a chance to happen to the patients when they suffer seizures but this conversation is not a conversation in a real sense but something not controlled by them. In complex partial seizures, patients lose their judgment of direction so it is dangerous to leave them alone.

In comparison, generalized seizures seem to make more trouble to the healthy condition of the people for a much larger areas of the brain are affected. The abnormal movements as well as a loss of consciousness is much more series than that of partial seizures and can last for short time or a long time. Usually, severe muscle spasms and jerk are typical symptoms of seizures of this type. In addition, people may often be forced to turn their head to one side and fall down very easily without clearly know the reason. Some of them may begin to abuse themselves by clenching their teeth and biting their tongue. Some severe patients will also lose bladder control.

The causes which give rise to the progression of seizure disorders in childhood vary from children of different ages. But a person can pick up seizure disorders just from his heredity, in which any external factor has nothing to do with the cause of disease. With regard to neonates, it is more likely that they will be attacked by seizure if their mothers get series injury or abuse drugs during gestation period. Besides, a birth defect or brain disorder can also underlie the development of epilepsy.

For toddlers under 2 years old, the impact of high fevers cannot be underestimated as it may open doors for seizure disorders. The high fevers are often caused by two typical conditions: heatstroke and infections. So for one thing, parents should remember never expose children directly to sunshine for a long time and take necessary protection measure, such as a sunbonnet or an umbrella. For another, keep their young children away from those who have bad flu or high fevers as toddlers’ immunity is low, making them vulnerable to infection.

Usually, if a child takes up too much nutrients, such as glucose, calcium, magnesium, vitamin B6, or sodium, their risk of being attacked will go higher because it can result in a high blood level of the elements mentioned above. This is the most common metabolic derangements cause of seizure in newborns.

Besides, the development of epilepsy in childhood can be a result from brain injury at or around the time of birth. Thus, mothers should extremely take good care of themselves before giving birth as this is one of the most effective ways to prevent their children from infecting by seizure disorders. If there are members in a family who have seizure disorders or central nervous system malformations, much more attention should pay to the healthy condition of new-born infants due to its high morbidity rate. In conclude, any harm related to the brains can increase the risk of seizure disorders since the harm can bring about inadequate oxygen to make the brain function properly or damage in the structure of the brain.

At present, an abuse of drug has witnessed the considerably high incidence of seizure disorders, especially in the new-born. Generally, high restriction of medical taking is put on pregnant women. Seizures occur to the infants easily when the dosage is too high, or it is not the right medicine. So it is highly recommended that pregnant women take medicine with the dose described and course of treatment. And they must ask their doctors for advice to see if they really need to take the medicine and if the medicine exerts bad influence on their babies’ health. Sometimes it is impossible to tell whether a drug can treat or trigger seizures because the judgment is largely based on the doses of taken. Actually, one medicine can play an important role to bring in or out seizure disorders, such as phenvtoin. Correct dosage can treat seizure disorders while too much dosage can give the opposite performance.

Appropriate and prompt treatment to seizure disorder plays a crucial role in reducing the pain and trouble it has brought about to the elderly. It is said that treatment can delete 1/3 of patients with epileptic seizures and 1/2 of the frequency of seizures. Although it is often difficult to cure seizure disorders completely, the dream of well-controlled seizures can actually come true by drugs.

General speaking, there are four effective types of treatment of seizure disorders for the elderly. First of all, elimination from the source is proof to be the most effective ways to prevent seizures from attacking the body. Therefore, it is highly recommended that the elderly should learn more about the cause of seizure disorders and the tips to prevent this disease. Secondly, precautions should also be considered if there are patients in a family. Loss of consciousness, strange movement and so on are the typical symptoms of seizure disorders and can be life threatening if they are not dealt with in a right way. The former two are the basic rules of treatment. When seizure disorders do occur, doctors are sure to be the most important people to help. They will prescribe some helpful medicine to the elderly to take regularly in order to get seizures under control. However, if more than two drugs-taken do no difference to the series condition, then surgery will become the final way to treat seizure disorders. But surgery is not the best way to treat seizure disorders in the elderly because the function in the old body is not very well and surgery can increase the risk of death in the elderly.

During the treatment period, the old patients should be taken good care of and never be exposed to injury. Their brains and necks should be under good protection, too. This is because brain is where the seizure disorders are active in. With respect to this, patients can lie on their beds with a pillow under their heads. As some patients cannot stop smacking their tongues when seizures occur, other people can help them by rolling the patients onto the left side to reduce aspiration.

Recently, discussions about the most appropriate time to initiate AED (automated external defibrillator) therapy fail to reach a universal agreement. Different people tend to hold a different view. Some clinicians think that only after a second unprovoked seizure has arisen does the initiate treatment perform its duty while other regard the most appropriate time to initiate AED therapy is after the onset of a first seizure.

In general, the treatment for epilepsy is aim at getting seizures and the side effects out of the patients and returning a high quality life to the patients. Usually, age-related pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic changes must be regarded when AEDs are utilized to treat epilepsy in seniors. With lower concentration of circulating plasma proteins of the old, it is likely that the free fraction of circulating AEDs will increase and the benefits to measure free AED levels will be more than those to measure routine total AED levels in seniors.