Mental Health Epilepsy

What Is Epilepsy?

According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (2004).

"Epilepsy is a brain disorder in which clusters of nerve cells or neurons, in the brain sometimes signal abnormally."

Epilepsy is the second most common mental impairment. It is a disorder of the central nervous system characterized by loss of consciousness and convulsions. Five to ten people among 1000 in the US are affected by epilepsy disorder. Among the young it is the most common mental health disorder.

How Does Epilepsy Occur?

Neurons generate the electrochemical impulses that help the brain to produce thoughts, feelings and actions. When the pattern of neurons’ activity is disturbed, it causes strange sensations, emotions and behaviors. Sometimes the intensity of these behaviors or sensations is so great that they develop into convulsions or muscular spasms that may even result in loss of consciousness.

Despite the above fact, epilepsy’s causes are still variable to many experts. The generalized understanding is that epilepsy is the result of an abnormality in the brain wiring which generates an imbalance in nerve signaling chemicals called neurotransmitters. Individuals with epilepsy may experience high or low neurotransmitter levels that affect the neuronal activities.

As a result the individual experience seizures. This process may be natural or due to a medical condition. For example, in some cases a head injury or a stroke that results in abnormal nerve connections can cause epilepsy. Pre-natal injury and developmental problems such as maternal infections, poor nutrition as well as oxygen deficiencies are some of the factors that could cause epilepsy at birth in a child.

Other Causes of Epilepsy

• Other unnatural causes include poisoning through lead, carbon monoxide and other toxic substances which lead to an imbalance in the neuronal activities in the brain.
• Research also suggests that genetic abnormalities may be one of the contributing factors to epileptic conditions. These include the defective genes; LaFora's disease which is caused by the altered genes or mutation of genes that result in epilepsy.

Some Facts about Epilepsy

• Normal neuron activities are estimated at 80 times per second, however, during a seizure this rate may increase as many as 500 times.
• It must be noted that having a seizure does not necessarily mean that the individual has epilepsy. Only when an individual has seizures more than twice, then it can be considered as epilepsy.
• According to statistics as many as 2 million people in the US have experienced seizures out of which 80 percent have been diagnosed with epilepsy.
• Currently epilepsy is not fully curable but it has become known to experts that epilepsy, the idiopathic type tends to go away eventually over a long period.

The positive aspect of this mental disorder is that it is curable through medicines and surgical techniques, although experts are of the opinion that 20% of the people remain epileptic despite treatment. This type of condition is known as intractable epilepsy.

Diagnosis of Epilepsy

It is difficult to diagnose epilepsy in individuals as not everyone having seizures has epilepsy. When an individual has more than one seizure, s/he may be diagnosed through epilepsy testing methods.

The most common tests include:

• blood tests
• the electroencephalogram (EEG),
• scans such as computerized tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)

Treating Epilepsy

Medicines

Once the individual is diagnosed with epilepsy then he/she may be treated to the established methods such as using anti-epileptic drugs (AEDs).

AEDs prevent the seizures from occurring but do not really cure epilepsy. Depending on the type of seizures and the type of AED, the seizures may decrease accordingly. However, sometimes even these AEDs do not control the seizures and individuals are left with the other alternatives of surgery and vagus nerve stimulation.

Surgery

Epilepsy surgery basically involves removal of the damaged or abnormal part of the brain by disconnecting the area of the brain that causes seizures. This process is carried out only after careful consideration for the parts of the brain that actually trigger seizures. The rate of success of these surgeries is estimated at 70%.

Electrical Stimulation

On the other hand, vagus nerve stimulation involves the treatment of epilepsy through electrical stimulation of the left vagus nerve. The treatment does not cure epilepsy but it reduces the duration and severity of the seizures in epileptic patients.

Furthermore, epilepsy is not contagious. It is not a mental illness that causes retardation. Individuals with epilepsy do not develop mental disability neither should they be treated as abnormal from their surroundings. Epileptic individuals have normal or above average intelligence and at times they are also known to be geniuses.

Whichever the method used, people with epilepsy get affected in their daily lives as well as in their emotional well being. Even those around them become traumatized which is all the reason why epilepsy should be diagnosed immediately and treated accordingly.