What is epilepsy?
Epilepsy is a brain disorder that causes recurrent seizures in the person who has it. These seizures occur when clusters of nerve cells (neurons) in the brain send the wrong signals. It can cause violent muscle spasms or even loss of consciousness.
What are the symptoms?
The symptoms of epilepsy vary from person to person. They include absence episodes, loss of consciousness and violent tremors. Some people have a strange sensation before having a seizure, which may be, for example, a tingling sensation or emotional changes. This is called an aura.
Seizures can be: typical absences; generalized tonic-clonic seizures and partial seizures.
Causes of epilepsy or why it occurs
There are multiple causes that can lead to epilepsy; from diseases, brain injuries and abnormal brain development. However, in many cases the cause is unknown.
Common causes include traumatic brain injury, dementia, brain tumor, abnormal blood vessels in the brain, infection or stroke.
Can it be prevented?
There is no way to prevent it, but eating a proper diet, getting the recommended amount of sleep and avoiding drugs and alcohol may decrease the likelihood of triggering seizures in people with epilepsy.
What is the treatment?
Treatment for epilepsy involves taking medicines, lifestyle changes, and sometimes even surgery.
The drugs help reduce the number of future seizures. If after trying two or three drugs the seizures continue, the epilepsy is known as treatment-resistant epilepsy.