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Epilepsy is a very common and well-studied disease, so in many cases specialists can help to get rid of it completely. Turning to statistics, it can be noted that currently about 1% of all inhabitants of our planet suffer from this disease. As a result of various studies and observations, medicine has identified several forms of epilepsy, which differ both in the reasons for which the disease develops and seizures occur, and in the location of its focus in the brain. In this article, we invite you to familiarize yourself with the symptoms, causes, and treatments for some of the most common types of the disease.
Idiopathic epilepsy
This form of the disease does not develop due to an organic lesion of the human brain. Idiopathic epilepsy results from a change in the work done by neurons as they become more active and their level of excitability increases.
The main reasons why a person can develop idiopathic epilepsy are:
Hereditary predisposition
Diseases of the nervous system
Congenital anomalies of the brain
Alcohol or drug poisoning
One type of idiopathic epilepsy is the so-called rolandic epilepsy. It occurs in children and adolescents between the ages of three and thirteen. This ailment got its name because of the localization of its focus – it is located in the Roland furrow of the cerebral cortex.
When an attack occurs in Rolandic epilepsy, convulsions occur in the muscles of the face and throat. Sometimes twitching of one of the limbs can occur.
The main symptoms of idiopathic rolandic epilepsy are as follows:
Numbness and tingling in the tongue, lips
Cramps in one arm or leg
Difficult speech
Salivation in large quantities
Memory worsens after an attack
Seizures occur more often at night
This form of epilepsy is benign and resolves on its own by about sixteen years of age. In most cases, no treatment is required.
Idiopathic epilepsy is a type of focal epilepsy.
Focal epilepsy
A form of epilepsy called focal epilepsy makes itself felt in childhood.
The causes of focal epilepsy may be different.
Concussion, severe blow to the head
Organ diseases
Infections that are viral in nature
Inflammation of the brain tissue
Injury received at birth
High blood pressure
Cervical osteochondrosis
The symptoms of focal epilepsy depend on where in the brain the lesion is located.
During an attack, the patient may experience clouding of consciousness, obsessions, even hallucinations. If an attack occurs in a child, then he may be tormented by vomiting, he sweats a lot and cries all the time. If only one side of the brain is damaged in a patient, involuntary rotation of the whites of the eyes, twitching of the fingers on the hands, cramps of the upper extremities can be observed.
Focal epilepsy is treated with medications and various procedures, with the exception of surgery. Also, with this disease, it is necessary to lead a healthy lifestyle, special attention should be paid to the quality of nutrition. It is recommended to eat foods more often that help restore the functioning of the brain. These are mainly proteins – chicken meat, nuts, sea fish, etc. It will be very useful to stop drinking coffee and alcoholic beverages.
temporal lobe epilepsy
In most cases, the main cause of this form of epilepsy is damage to the temporal lobe due to injuries received during childbirth. But there may be other reasons as well. For example, it is not uncommon for this disease to develop in people who have suffered traumatic brain injuries, such infections as brucellosis, tick-borne encephalitis, purulent meningitis and others. In addition, many people who have had a stroke, both hemorrhagic and ischemic, suffer from temporal lobe epilepsy.
When a patient has an attack, he may feel pain in the abdomen, he may feel sick, and often there are pains in the region of the heart, shortness of breath. Changes in consciousness are observed – panic attacks, hysteria, a person loses orientation in space. He can perform actions that do not make sense at the moment – for example, take off his clothes, take various objects in his hands and put them in a different place, etc. Vision is impaired, the patient does not perceive smells well.
Temporal lobe epilepsy is dangerous because it progresses all the time. Over time, patients with this form of the disease develop vegetative disorders, between attacks there is increased sweating, problems in the endocrine system, and allergies.
Diagnosis of temporal lobe epilepsy is performed on the basis of indications of MRI, PET, polysomnography. Naturally, first of all, the patient’s complaints, his neurological status are taken into account.
How exactly temporal lobe epilepsy will be treated depends on the underlying cause of the disease. For example, if the disease is caused by an infection, then the patient is prescribed drugs that relieve inflammation, and if the cause of the disease lies in the presence of tumors in the brain, then the patient is sent for surgery. But whatever the cause of the development of temporal lobe epilepsy, the patient is still shown anticonvulsant treatment.
Prevention of this form of the disease consists in the timely treatment of various pathologies of the brain, the prevention of infections of the nervous system, and the prevention of birth injuries of the head.
Partial epilepsy
Partial epilepsy is a disease with a chronic course, it develops due to damage to nerve cells, as well as due to their high activity in one part of the brain.
This form of epilepsy is divided into several subspecies:
Frontal
temporal
Parietal
Occipital
Multifocal
Multifocal form of partial epilepsy is when several parts of the brain are affected at once.
There are three types of partial epilepsy seizures:
Simple (when there are no disturbances of consciousness)
Complex (when there are disturbances of consciousness)
secondary generalization (when the whole body of the patient is involved in the process)
When it comes to the symptoms of this form of epilepsy, the location of the focus in one of the brain regions is necessarily taken into account. For example, if the frontal part is affected, then the attacks in most cases occur at night, their duration is between 30 and 60 seconds. There may be convulsions of the upper or lower extremities, the patient begins to blink frequently, turn his head, rotate the whites of his eyes, his face turns red, and his speech becomes intermittent.
In the case of a brain lesion in the temple area, the patient has complex seizures when he loses consciousness or freezes with his eyes wide open.
The parietal form of partial epilepsy makes itself felt through tingling or burning sensation, numbness of the arms or legs, pain in different parts of the body.
With occipital epilepsy, the patient’s vision is impaired, visual hallucinations, involuntary head turns can be observed.
This form of the disease is diagnosed with the help of a comprehensive examination by a neurologist, as well as the patient undergoing electroencephalography, MRI, computed tomography, and an examination of the fundus is also carried out. Often, people who are suspected of having partial epilepsy are sent for a consultation with a psychiatrist.
This form of epilepsy is treated with medication, mainly anticonvulsant drugs are prescribed. If this method of treatment does not give positive results, then the patient is sent to the neurosurgery department, where he undergoes appropriate treatment.
Prophylaxis of epilepsy is, first of all, in maintaining a healthy lifestyle. In order to prevent seizures, it is necessary to stop smoking, stop drinking alcohol, including those that are related to the lungs. In addition, you need to reduce the consumption of tea and coffee, especially strong. It is not recommended to eat before going to bed, climb to a height. Doctors advise patients with partial epilepsy to walk more often in the fresh air and consume fermented milk products.
Jackson epilepsy
This form of epilepsy is distinguished by the fact that seizures in patients occur specifically – on one or another (but only one) part of the body. This disease got its name thanks to a scientist, a neurologist from England by the name of Jackson – it was he who discovered this form of epilepsy.
A feature of Jacksonian epilepsy is the fact that seizures occur with patients with full consciousness. The attack originates in one of the limbs and spreads further, but only along the same side of the body, without moving to the other. Most often, it all starts with the fingers, then the attack reaches the shoulder, affects the face, spreads to the leg. Passes the attack in reverse order.
The reasons why a person most often develops Jacksonian epilepsy are as follows:
Head injuries and, as a result, brain damage
Vascular anomalies of the brain
brain tumors
Encephalitis
Treatment of Jacksonian epilepsy is carried out with medication, using anticonvulsants. But if drug therapy does not give any result, then they resort to surgical intervention.
Juvenile myoclonic epilepsy
This form is one of the most common. It is also often referred to as Janz’s syndrome, as well as myoclonus epilepsy. Most often it develops between the ages of 8 and 26, but the first signs in most cases are observed between the ages of 12 and 16, mainly in boys. There are cases when myoclonic epilepsy developed in infants.
Causes of myoclonic epilepsy:
Brain damage from head trauma
Baby brain damage during pregnancy
Hereditary predisposition
Инфекции
Neoplasms in the brain
Circulatory disorders in the brain
Often, doctors fail to establish the real cause of the disease. This applies to some special cases in medical practice.
The main sign indicating the presence of a disease such as myoclonic epilepsy in a person is an epileptic seizure.
Attacks in those suffering from this disease can be of three types:
Myoclonic: characterized by a sharp, sudden twitching of the muscles, limbs, face, or whole body. Often this happens immediately after waking up, sometimes during the morning meal. If the patient is very tired during the day, then he may have an attack in the evening hours.
Tonic-clonic: They occur in 60 percent of patients with juvenile myoclonic epilepsy. They happen in the first hours after waking up. More often they occur due to the fact that the patient went to bed too late or woke up too early.
Absences: observed in one third or even half of patients with juvenile myoclonic epilepsy. During such attacks, a person loses consciousness for about half a minute. There are usually no seizures. Most often, absences occur in the morning, but, in principle, they occur at any other time of the day.
An attack in juvenile myoclonic epilepsy can also occur after drinking alcohol.
Treatment of this form of the disease of the nervous system is carried out by means of antiepileptic drugs. Due to them, it is possible to reduce the duration and number of seizures, and in some cases even get rid of them. In order to achieve a positive result, it is necessary to take drugs regularly and for a long time. Often patients have to take medication for life.