SEIZURE OF THE BRAIN

The primary symptom of Epilepsy is the Epileptic Seizure. Not all the persons who suffers seizures are considered to have epilepsy. Diagnosis of epilepsy is applied to only those patients whose seizures are generated by their own chromic brain dysfunction.

Convulsions- (motor seizure) these often involve tremors (clonus), rigidity (tonus), and loss of both balance and conciousness.

Causes of Epilepsy: Viruses Neurotoxins Tumors Blows to the head

The diagnosis of Epilepsy rests heavily on evidence from electroencephalography (EEG).

Some epileptic experience peculiar psychological changes just before a convulsion. These changes, called “epileptical auras” may take different forms. Aura- a subjective sensation or motor phenomenon that precedes and indicates the onset of a neurological episode, such as a migraine or an epileptic seizure.

For example: A bad smell A specific thought A vague feeling of familiarity A hallucination Or a tightness of the chest

Epileptical auras are important for two reasons: First, the nature of the auras provides clues concerning the location of the epileptical focus. Second, because the epileptical auras experienced by a particular patient who are often similar from attack to attack, they warn the patient of an impending convulsion.

Partial epilepsy or generalized epilepsy The various seizure types are so different from one another that epilepsy is best viewed not as a single disease but as a number of different, but related disease. Partial seizure is a seizure that does not involve the entire brain. The epileptic neurons at a focus begin to discharge together in burst and it is this produces epileptic spilling in the EEG.

The synchronous activity tends to spread to other areas of the brain, but in the case of partial seizures not to the entire brain. The specific behavioural symptoms of a partial epileptic seizure depends on where the disruptive discharges begin into what structures they spread. Because partial seizures do not involve the entire brain, they are not usually accompanied by a total loss of consciousness or equilibrium.

The 2 major categories of partial seizures Simple Simple partial seizures- are partial seizures whose symptoms are primarily sensory or motor or both; These are sometimes called “Jacksonian Seizures” after the famous 19th century neurologist Hughlings Jackson. As the epileptic discharges spread through the sensory or motor areas of the brain, the symptoms spread systematically through the body.

Complex Complex partial seizures- are often restricted to the temporal lobes, and those who experience them are often said to have “temporal lobe epilepsy”. During a complex partial seizure, the patient engages in compulsive, repetitive, simple behaviour commonly referred to as “automatism” and in more complex behaviours that appear almost normal.

Generalized seizures- involves the entire brain Some begin as focal discharges that gradually spread through the entire brain. In other cases, the discharges seem to begin almost simultaneously in all parts of the brain. Like partial seizures, generalized seizures occur in many forms. One is the “grand mal” (literally: big trouble”) seizure.

Common manifestation of symptoms: Loss of consciousness Loss of equilibrium Violent “tonic- clonic” convulsion- a convulsion involving both tonus and clonus. Tongue biting, urinary incontinence cyanosis

Hypoxia (shortage of oxygen supply to tissue for example to brain) that accompanies a grand mal seizure can itself cause brain damage. A second major category of generalized seizure is the “peli mal” (literally “small trouble”) “seizure”.

Are not associated with convulsions Are not associated with convulsions. Their primary behavioural symptoms is the “petit mal absence”- a disruption of consciousness that is associated with a cessation of ongoing behaviour a vacant look, and sometimes fluttering eyelids. Most common in children Frequently ceased at puberty They often go undiagnosed Children with “petit mal seizure” considered as “day dreamers”.

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