General Nursing©

What You Should Know About Epilepsy?

Many types of brain abnormalities can be responsible for producing seizure activity. Abnormal discharges may spread to other cells in a local area or to remote areas of the brain, resulting in intermittent disturbance in the brain's normal functions. Changes in brain biochemistry and communication between brain cells occur. These basic neuro functional abnormalities that lead to epilepsy produce the clinical symptoms that are seen. In turn, recurrent seizures or prolonged seizures can cause injury to the brain. Seizures that last longer than 20 to 30 minutes can damage the brain's neurons.

A seizure is often divided into different parts. The aura is a period or warning prior to a seizure. Patients may experience unusual smells, visual symptoms, or feelings. The seizure itself is known as the ictus. The period of time after the seizure is called the postictal state.

Seizures were depicted by prehistoric man in cave paintings. Hippocrates wrote of epilepsy and of its relationship to the brain. Epilepsy also is described in the Bible. Writings from 4,000 years ago depict epileptics as possessed by demons. Julius Caesar, the great Russian novelist Dostoyevsky, and King Charles II all are said to have had seizures.

Causes:

Epilepsy is very often but not always the result of underlying brain disease. Many abnormalities of the nervous system can result in seizure activity. Seizures can also occur in the normal nervous system when its metabolic balance is disturbed. The etiology (cause) of epilepsy may be idiopathic (not clearly known) or related to a particular disease state. However, about 35% of all cases of epilepsy have no clearly definable cause. Several community studies (USA Italy, Equador) show that in about 60-75% of persons with epilepsy, no known case can be found.

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