What Can Cause Sudden Seizures In Adults – Epilepsy is a neurological disorder that causes a disruption in the electrical system of a person’s brain. These disturbances send irregular signals to the rest of the body and the result is what we know as seizures. About 3.4 million people in the United States live with the condition, meaning there are more people with epilepsy than with autism spectrum disorders, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis and cerebral palsy combined, according to the Epilepsy Foundation.

Despite the common diagnosis, there are many misconceptions about epilepsy. For example, seizures do not always involve violent convulsions. Many epileptic seizures are subtle and last only a few seconds. Medication or surgery can usually treat the condition successfully.

What Can Cause Sudden Seizures In Adults

“It’s important for people to know that there are many types of epilepsy, especially in children,” says Dr. Alison May, a pediatric neurologist with the Epilepsy Control Program at NewYork-Presbyterian Lawrence Hospital. “Many people think of epilepsy as one specific type, where children have seizures and significant cognitive impairment. But it can look very different and families should know that epilepsy does not mean lifelong seizures with learning disabilities.”

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“There should be no stigma attached to epilepsy,” adds Dr. David Chuang we, an assistant neurologist at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center. “Most people manage their epilepsy with anti-epileptic drugs and can live a completely normal life.

Talked to Dr. Chuang, who is also an assistant professor of clinical neurology at Weill Cornell Medicine, and Dr. May, who is an assistant professor of neurology at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, to learn more about living with epilepsy and how it affects adults and children.

An epileptic seizure involves abnormal electrical activity of neurons in your brain, says Dr. Chuang. A person experiences different seizure symptoms depending on where this abnormal electrical activity started in the brain and whether it spreads to other parts of the brain.

The seizure can only be in one part of the brain, or it can spread, adds Dr. May we. A seizure is considered a generalized seizure if the whole brain is involved, or it can be a seizure, where only one part of the brain seems to be activated.

What Are The Different Types Of Seizures?

No. Epilepsy means you have unprovoked seizures, with a high risk of having more unprovoked seizures, says Dr. Chuang. There are other conditions that can cause seizures, such as hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) or alcohol withdrawal. If these are the causes of seizures, the person would not be classified as having epilepsy, because in those cases they are seizures and you just have to address the underlying condition.

There is not one type of seizure, explains Dr. Chuang. They can range from a strange sensation, such as experiencing a strange taste, a sense of déjà vu, or staring blankly, all the way to major convulsions that you might see in movies or TV shows. They can last anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes. Some people with epilepsy may have seizures once a year, while some may have several seizures a day.

With epilepsy, a person’s seizures are repetitive and tend to look the same, says Dr. Chuang. For example, if a person constantly experiences the same strange smell or the same kind of twitching, it puts it on the radar as a possibility of epilepsy that should be looked at by a doctor.

The gold standard for diagnosing epilepsy is capturing an actual seizure on a video electroencephalogram (EEG). This is a procedure where doctors film a patient while monitoring electrical activity in the brain so they can try to capture a seizure on video and correlate it with the patient’s brain activity. However, it can be difficult to capture seizures on an EEG, says Dr. Chuang. Other supportive tests that can help make a diagnosis include taking a detailed history of the patient to see if what they are experiencing is consistent with seizures, or using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to see if there are abnormalities in the brain that can cause seizures .

Adult Seizures: What Causes Them For The First Time?

Once epilepsy is diagnosed and the doctor knows whether it is a localized or generalized seizure, he can decide which medication would be the best choice.

The symptoms and how epilepsy is diagnosed are generally the same in adults and children, but with some key differences, says Dr. May. Some children may be too young to explain what is happening, where they feel something – they don’t have the words to express it. In that case, the provider will ask the parents many questions, because the diagnosis depends in part on the caregiver’s reports and what they observe. Caregivers may be asked to send videos so the doctor can see what is happening.

If a child seems to go out and does not respond to their name being called or touched, or if there is a pause or regression in a child’s development, or a sudden challenge in learning that was not there before, these may also be signs that something is happening in the brain. If there are concerns, parents should talk to their pediatrician and get a referral to a neurologist. Getting a referral is easy and there is no risk in getting an EEG to see if your child has seizures.

There are various causes. In adults, says Dr. Chuang, epilepsy is caused by trauma to the brain — whether from a stroke, brain tumor, head injury, brain infection, or bleeding in the brain such as a ruptured aneurysm or subarachnoid hemorrhage. Many adults also have epilepsy due to small, abnormal brain development that may not lead to symptoms for most of their lives but will cause them to develop epilepsy in adulthood. It is also not uncommon for the cause of epilepsy to go undiagnosed.

The Basics On Seizures — From New To Icu

In children, adds Dr. In addition, there are some age-related diseases that are more likely to cause epilepsy, such as genetic changes or ischemic brain injury. Hypoxic ischemic injury is like a stroke, but it occurs at birth, where the baby has lost oxygen to the brain. Seizures caused by cortical dysplasia, which is a developmental abnormality in which part of the brain does not form correctly, are more common in children than in adults.

Almost everyone, children and adults, diagnosed with epilepsy would be started on antiepileptic drugs. If the first drug doesn’t work, the doctor may add a second or third drug, but if those don’t work, epilepsy surgery may be considered, if the patient qualifies for it. With epilepsy surgery, doctors first find where the seizures are coming from in the brain, and if they can do it without causing any significant negative side effects, they will remove that area of ​​the brain, explains Dr. Chuang.

If medications do not work and the patient is not a candidate for surgery, another option would be nerve stimulation. This involves surgically placing a device either under the skin of a person’s chest to stimulate the vagus nerve (a nerve that runs from the brain through the chest), or directly to the brain, to send electrical impulses to help control seizures.

Usually, people with epilepsy end up taking their medication for the rest of their lives, says Dr. Chuang. Some people stop having seizures when they come off medication after epilepsy surgery, and some people stop taking their medication because they have been seizure free for a very long time and after they stop taking the medication they actually keep having seizures. -free.

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Yes. Some childhood epilepsy syndromes can outgrow, explains Dr. May. This is different from what it is in adults. Some children may develop seizures at a young age, and they may grow out of them as they get older, usually around the teenage years. The goal is always to achieve what Dr. May calls it “seizure freedom,” which means no seizures, and then, based on a thorough evaluation, determine if the child can get off his medication. If a child has a normal EEG, normal MRI, and normal development, they would be a good candidate to try to wean off medication when they reach two years of seizure freedom. Doctors don’t really know why children outgrow their epilepsy, but researchers are studying this to learn more.

Epilepsy can be a scary diagnosis, says Dr. Chuang. If it is not controlled, a person cannot do many things on their own, such as swim or drive a car, because they never know when they will have a seizure. However, those whose epilepsy is well controlled, whether with medication or surgery, can usually live a normal life. Epileptic seizures occur when brain function is disrupted and can be caused by brain injury, infections, and family history, among others. It is important to know first aid for epileptic seizures as they can cause people to injure themselves.

Epileptic seizures can be frightening and traumatic events, and you may be wondering what can cause a person to

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