There are millions of brain nerve cells in our cerebral cortex, and under normal circumstances, each cell carries a very small current. The electric waves transmit neural information and make us produce thoughts, feelings and activities, and coordinate functions such as breathing or heartbeat.
Epilepsy is a problem with brain function (electric waves), which causes paroxysmal transient brain dysfunction (seizures). In addition to epilepsy, patients have a higher chance of having other problems (such as intellectual disability, cognitive problems, and emotional problems).
Different parts of the brain are responsible for different functions. Depends on the location of seizure onset and propagation, patients with epilepsy can have different symptoms and different manifestations of seizures.
Seizures can occur at any time, usually lasting from a few seconds to a few minutes.
Epilepsy is a common neurological disease of the brain. About one in every 20 people has had a seizure in their lifetime, and one in every 200 to 500 people has chronic epilepsy.
There are two main types of seizure attack
Generalized seizure
Patients with generalized epilepsy (commonly known as “grand mal” may scream, stiff, then passing out. They have generalized twitching in their limbs. During attack, the patient may stop breathing and turn blue (cyanosis), biting the tip of the tongue and incontinence.
Other forms of generalized seizures:
- Tonic seizures: There is no clonic twitching in the limbs, and the patient will fall suddenly if standing.
- Atonic attack: The muscles of the whole body suddenly relax and fall to the ground, unconscious.
- Myoclonic seizures: sudden brief twitching of the limbs, which may occur with coma or other forms of epilepsy.
- Absence seizures: Commonly known as “minor seizures”, it is more common in children. The patient loses consciousness for a short period of time, usually does not fall, and does not twitch.
Duration:
Generally, it will stop spontaneously in 1 to 3 minutes.
Patients may experience confusion, headache, or lethargy after regaining consciousness.
Focal Seizure
Some focal seizure does not affect awareness. Patients can stay awake during the onset, with only twitching of the face, hands or legs, and sometimes with strange sensations such as acupuncture or burning.
Another type of localized seizure can cause impairment of awareness.
At the beginning of the attack, the patient will have a strange sensation rising slowly from the stomach, and then have some illusion, for example, smelling strange smell or seeing the surrounding things deformed or discolored.
Patients may:
- Staring, not responding to others calling, like falling into a dream;
- Repeated chewing and lips smacking with impaired awareness;
- Repeatedly hands rubbing, unbuttoning, playing with clothes or nearby objects, with impaired awareness
- Walking and running, with impaired awareness
- fear, joy or anger feeling and expression, even crying and laughing.
Duration:
It usually lasts 1 to 5 minutes and it aborted spontaneously. The patient gradually regains consciousness and has no recall; sometimes it feels headache, tiredness and drowsiness.