Epilepsy

About Epilepsy

Epilepsy is a neurological disorder characterized by recurrent unprovoked seizures, affecting approximately 50 million people worldwide. A seizure is a transient occurrence of signs or symptoms due to abnormal excessive or synchronous neuronal activity in the brain. Seizures are classified as focal originating in one brain region or generalized involving both hemispheres from onset. Generalized seizure types include tonic clonic grand mal, absence petit mal, myoclonic, and atonic. Causes include genetic predisposition, stroke, brain tumor, head trauma, CNS infection, developmental disorders, and neurodegenerative disease. In approximately 50 percent of cases, no cause is identified idiopathic. Diagnosis requires clinical history, EEG showing epileptiform discharges, and neuroimaging MRI to identify structural causes. Treatment with antiseizure medications achieves seizure freedom in up to about 70 percent of people. Common medications include levetiracetam Keppra, lamotrigine Lamictal, valproate Depakote, carbamazepine Tegretol, and lacosamide Vimpat. For drug resistant epilepsy, options include epilepsy surgery temporal lobectomy, corpus callosotomy, ketogenic diet, and neuromodulation vagus nerve stimulation, responsive neurostimulation RNS, deep brain stimulation DBS. Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy SUDEP affects approximately 1 in 1,000 people with epilepsy each year. A first seizure, a seizure lasting more than five minutes, or repeated seizures without recovery in between is a medical emergency; call your local emergency number.