WHAT IS EPILEPSY?
Epilepsy is a neurological disorder that affects over 2 million Americans.
FACTS THAT EVERYONE SHOULD KNOW
ABOUT EPILEPSY
Epilepsy is not a disease. Seizure
disorder commonly called Epilepsy is
a symptom of a neurological disorder in the brain.
Epilepsy has no single cause. In fact, about
half the time, there is no known cause of the seizures. Some of the known
causes of epilepsy include: head trauma, brain tumor, stroke, poisoning and
injury during pregnancy or birth, alcoholism of the birth mother resulting in
Fetal Alcohol Syndrome/Effect{with seizures}. Many other cases can be prevented
by wearing seat belts, motorcycle and bicycle helmets, and getting good medical
attention during pregnancy and childhood.
Epilepsy can affect anyone at any age at any
time. Some people are born with epilepsy; others develop it later in life.
Epilepsy has many forms ranging from momentary
lapses of attention to convulsions . There are over 20 different types of
seizures.
Epilepsy is an episodic disorder. For most
people seizures are brief and infrequent.
Epilepsy, for most, can be treated with
medications and most individuals lead normal lives. Treatment methods include
medication, vagus nerve stimulation and surgery.
There are a lot of myths and
misunderstandings about epilepsy which, for most people, are more difficult to
handle than the actual seizures themselves. For many, it is not the disorder,
but society's reaction to it that creates the disability.
It is because of the belief in these myths
that many seizure patients also have panic disorder episodes.
Seizure First Aid
In most cases, little or no
first aid is required when someone has seizure.
For an absence seizure (characterized by a momentary lapse of attention) No first aid at all is needed as the seizure lasts
only a few seconds, and in many cases you wouldn't even realize that someone
has had such a seizure.
For complex partial seizures (characterized by disoriented behavior with random
movements) Keep calm, try to redirect
the person from wandering into a dangerous area, and explain what is happening
to bystanders.
For tonic clonic
seizures (convulsive): Keep calm. Clear the area around the person having
the seizure of any dangerous objects. Turn the person to his/her side and place
something soft under the head. Never try to restrain the person's movement.
Never place or force anything into the mouth. Let the person rest following the
seizure, if necessary.
Calling an ambulance is not usually
necessary unless the seizure is
followed by another seizure, lasts more than five minutes, is a person's first
seizure or if the person sustains an injury which may require attention.
There are many resource links on the following site
http:www.irsc.org/seizure.htm
an International Recourses for Special Children Page
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Originally written for the EFA in 1955 and periodically updated. First posted her in 1994, and revised as new information became available.