Epilepsy: symptoms and treatment, signs, causes of epilepsy
Epilepsy is a chronic neurological disease that occurs with fits of loss of consciousness, convulsive secondary seizures, and is the result of excess electrical activity of nerve cells, which is due to organic brain damage.
The disease has been known since times when medicine did not know the explanation for many things. Therefore, pathology for a long time was considered mystical and called it divine or sacred.
For the first time epilepsy was associated with a brain disease by the ancient Greek philosopher Hippocrates.
Convulsive seizures cause high convulsive brain cell readiness, which underlies epilepsy, and the emergence of an epileptic focus, congenital or acquired.
But only this circumstance to interpret the development of the disease is impossible. The cause of epilepsy in adults and children may be:
In children and adults, the distinctive symptom of epilepsy is a seizure that begins unexpectedly with loss of consciousness, falling and a characteristic loud scream without the influence of any external stimuli. The sound accompaniment is caused by the contraction of the diaphragmatic muscles and the contraction of the glottis.
Usually, the attack is short-term and lasts for several minutes, then the symptoms of epilepsy pass. First the body and limbs are stretched tightly, the head reclines, the vessels on the neck rise, the breath stops, and the face acquires a cyanotic shade - this is the tonic phase.
After 15-20 seconds there are clonic jerky convulsions, during which the muscles of the trunk, upper and lower extremities contract. The attack is accompanied by a bite of the tongue and a large amount of foam colored with blood. Breathing, noisy and hoarse at first, is restored in 2-3 minutes, the intensity of the convulsions decreases and the muscles relax. Perhaps involuntary urination.
After a seizure, a deep sleep is experienced. Usually, after waking up, a person feels incomprehensible lethargy and drowsiness, but does not remember what happened to him.
All of the above concerns a large epileptic fit, but since the cause of seizures is caused by a lesion of the brain tissue, the seizures may also be different. There are partial seizures that can occur without disturbance of consciousness and can be expressed in visual, gustatory, auditory hallucinations.
An unconvulsive form is characterized by loss of consciousness, but the person does not fall and can perform some kind of automatic action. From the outside it looks like fading for a few seconds. Response to light or sound is missing.
In some cases, the pathological activity of cells in the brain focus rises at night, then the sleeping person rises from the bed, can talk and perform acts that seem to be conscious. After a fit, this episode is erased from memory.
It should be said that sometimes, before the onset of an epileptic attack, there is a special condition - an aura, which is expressed by sleep disorders, headache, hot flashes.
To make a diagnosis it is necessary to conduct a general and neurological examination, the purpose of which is to identify current diseases that could cause seizures in children or adults. The main diagnostic methods are electroencephalography( EEG) and magnetic resonance imaging( MRI).
The first method allows to detect changes in the bioelectrical activity of the cortex. Based on the data obtained, violations in the brain, type of seizures, control of the effectiveness of treatment are determined. EEG does not affect health and examination can do as much as necessary.
MRI indicates a focal lesion that is the cause of the disease, and is the most accurate method of diagnosing structural changes in the brain.
Treatment of epilepsy is aimed at achieving several goals. It implies a reduction in the frequency and duration of seizures, the prevention of new manifestations of the disease, anesthesia and minimizing the side effects of taking medications. These goals are achieved through medication and non-pharmacological methods.
Drugs are used in a wide range. Not only anticonvulsants are shown to reduce the frequency and duration of seizures, but also neurotropic medicines that control the transmission of nervous excitation in the central nervous system.
To non-pharmacological methods of treatment of epilepsy include the adjustment of the regime of the day, the complete rejection of bad habits, for example, from drinking alcohol. Dietitians also developed a special ketogenic diet with a high fat content and a low amount of carbohydrates, which helps to stop seizures mainly in children.
Modern neurosurgery allows you to treat epilepsy by removing epileptic foci in different parts of the brain. This method of treatment is carried out with extreme caution in order not to affect vital areas.
The disease has been known since times when medicine did not know the explanation for many things. Therefore, pathology for a long time was considered mystical and called it divine or sacred.
For the first time epilepsy was associated with a brain disease by the ancient Greek philosopher Hippocrates.
Causes of epilepsy
Convulsive seizures cause high convulsive brain cell readiness, which underlies epilepsy, and the emergence of an epileptic focus, congenital or acquired.
But only this circumstance to interpret the development of the disease is impossible. The cause of epilepsy in adults and children may be:
- hereditary predisposition.
- disorder of protein metabolism.
- failure in the endocrine system.
- traumatic brain injury, including birth.
- is an infectious disease( encephalitis, tuberculosis).
- congenital malformation of the brain.
- is an oncological disease.
- acute cerebrovascular accident( see signs of a stroke).
- poisoning of the body with toxic substances( alcohol intoxication).
- lesion of the cervical vessels.
- psychoneurological pathology.
Symptoms of epilepsy in children and adults
In children and adults, the distinctive symptom of epilepsy is a seizure that begins unexpectedly with loss of consciousness, falling and a characteristic loud scream without the influence of any external stimuli. The sound accompaniment is caused by the contraction of the diaphragmatic muscles and the contraction of the glottis.
Usually, the attack is short-term and lasts for several minutes, then the symptoms of epilepsy pass. First the body and limbs are stretched tightly, the head reclines, the vessels on the neck rise, the breath stops, and the face acquires a cyanotic shade - this is the tonic phase.
After 15-20 seconds there are clonic jerky convulsions, during which the muscles of the trunk, upper and lower extremities contract. The attack is accompanied by a bite of the tongue and a large amount of foam colored with blood. Breathing, noisy and hoarse at first, is restored in 2-3 minutes, the intensity of the convulsions decreases and the muscles relax. Perhaps involuntary urination.
After a seizure, a deep sleep is experienced. Usually, after waking up, a person feels incomprehensible lethargy and drowsiness, but does not remember what happened to him.
All of the above concerns a large epileptic fit, but since the cause of seizures is caused by a lesion of the brain tissue, the seizures may also be different. There are partial seizures that can occur without disturbance of consciousness and can be expressed in visual, gustatory, auditory hallucinations.
Epilepsy with vegeto-visceral manifestations is accompanied by sweating, dilated pupils, incomprehensible sensations in the epigastric region, reddening of the face.
An unconvulsive form is characterized by loss of consciousness, but the person does not fall and can perform some kind of automatic action. From the outside it looks like fading for a few seconds. Response to light or sound is missing.
In some cases, the pathological activity of cells in the brain focus rises at night, then the sleeping person rises from the bed, can talk and perform acts that seem to be conscious. After a fit, this episode is erased from memory.
It should be said that sometimes, before the onset of an epileptic attack, there is a special condition - an aura, which is expressed by sleep disorders, headache, hot flashes.
Diagnostics
To make a diagnosis it is necessary to conduct a general and neurological examination, the purpose of which is to identify current diseases that could cause seizures in children or adults. The main diagnostic methods are electroencephalography( EEG) and magnetic resonance imaging( MRI).
The first method allows to detect changes in the bioelectrical activity of the cortex. Based on the data obtained, violations in the brain, type of seizures, control of the effectiveness of treatment are determined. EEG does not affect health and examination can do as much as necessary.
MRI indicates a focal lesion that is the cause of the disease, and is the most accurate method of diagnosing structural changes in the brain.
Treatment of epilepsy
Treatment of epilepsy is aimed at achieving several goals. It implies a reduction in the frequency and duration of seizures, the prevention of new manifestations of the disease, anesthesia and minimizing the side effects of taking medications. These goals are achieved through medication and non-pharmacological methods.
Drugs are used in a wide range. Not only anticonvulsants are shown to reduce the frequency and duration of seizures, but also neurotropic medicines that control the transmission of nervous excitation in the central nervous system.
To non-pharmacological methods of treatment of epilepsy include the adjustment of the regime of the day, the complete rejection of bad habits, for example, from drinking alcohol. Dietitians also developed a special ketogenic diet with a high fat content and a low amount of carbohydrates, which helps to stop seizures mainly in children.
Modern neurosurgery allows you to treat epilepsy by removing epileptic foci in different parts of the brain. This method of treatment is carried out with extreme caution in order not to affect vital areas.