By Editors on 07-11-2022
BERKELLAND – The first week of November is almost over. But the whole month of November is the month of epilepsy. November Epilepsy Awareness Month is the official name. A whole month to give more attention and awareness of epilepsy and its consequences.
Experience expert tells
It is clear that epilepsy has an effect on the patient’s life, but what effect does it have on the environment? And what happens if a child has epilepsy? An experience expert explains: “Having a child with epilepsy has a lot of impact on the child itself, but also on the whole family. The carefree is gone, always afraid that the “epi monster” will rear its head, always make sure that the emergency medication is with you. But also the misunderstanding of your environment. Epilepsy is so much more than everyone thinks it is a “falling illness”. There are so many types of epilepsy. It also affects the social lives of many parents; “In the beginning we had no social life anymore. You don’t trust anyone with your child, you want to be there yourself. In addition, no one dared to look after my child for a long time due to the constant threat of attacks. But also a sibling should always take the epilepsy of their brother or sister into account. Because of the epilepsy, my daughter needs 24/7 supervision in order to intervene in time during seizures to prevent serious injury. And 24/7 is really 24/7. So also cycling to and from school, at night, during holidays, not being able to quickly run an errand, walk your dog, meet friends, spontaneous lunches, etc. Parents of a child with epilepsy are always on and must always take into account keep with… With a lot of love of course…..
What exactly is epilepsy?
Epilepsy is a condition in which seizures occur. These seizures are caused by a sudden, temporary disruption of the electrical impulse transmission in the brain. Epilepsy has different forms and also different types of seizures. In addition, it has various causes that can cause epilepsy. Attacks are sometimes also caused by lack of sleep, fever, or acute illness, such as meningitis or a low blood sugar level. Epilepsy only occurs when you regularly have seizures that are caused by a ‘short circuit’ in the brain.
What does an attack look like?
The type of attack and the amount of attacks vary from person to person. Some individuals fall to the ground during a seizure with the arms and legs jerking. Other people feel strange tingling sensations, hear strange noises, or just stare straight ahead for a short period of time.
Type Epilepsie
Just a technical story, but roughly there are two types of attacks: the focal and generalized attack. In a focal seizure, epileptic activity is present in part of the brain. The rest of the brain is functioning normally at that time. In generalized seizures, the epileptic activity is in multiple parts of the brain.
Types of Seizures
Epilepsy manifests itself in many different ways. Someone may also smell something strange, be absent for a while or show different behavior. What happens depends on where the seizure originates in the brain and how the seizure activity spreads. The most well-known and most common generalized seizure in adults is a tonic-clonic seizure: this seizure starts with a stiffening of the muscles, then the muscles will stiffen and gradually start to shake in the arms and legs. Another seizure is a tonic seizure . This one is very similar to the above attack, only the shocks in the body are not. During this attack, the person will only be stiff. In a clonic attack, the tonic part (the stiffening of the muscles) does not occur. Here, someone immediately starts with shocks. Focal seizures are difficult to recognize and can come in different variants. The symptoms vary enormously and the person is not always aware of them. When there is no seizure, the brain of someone with epilepsy usually works just like anyone else’s. Then there is nothing to notice about him or her
Causes
Epilepsy has many causes, but in about fifty percent of cases there is no clear cause (yet). But in some of the epilepsy patients, the cause is age-related or a genetic abnormality in the hereditary material. In addition, there may also be structural causes. Structural causes are predisposition disorders or so-called acquired abnormalities. A predisposition disorder is, for example, a disorder of the cerebral cortex that arose during pregnancy. For example, an acquired abnormality can be an abnormality that is caused by a virus, brain accident, stroke or oxygen deficiency at birth. Furthermore, a cause can also be a metabolic disorder or an immunological disorder or a brain tumor.
What can you do about epilepsy?
There are several options for treating epilepsy: For example, there is medication that can help. These drugs make the brain cells less sensitive to stimuli. In some cases, brain surgery can also help. 50% to 80% percent of patients have no seizures after such an operation. In addition, a large proportion of patients can reduce the medication (completely). When medicines do not help or cause many side effects, some patients also benefit greatly from a Ketogenic diet. (Never experiment with this yourself and let an expert guide you in this).
What can you do yourself?
In addition to taking medication and possibly adjusting your diet, you can also ensure that you are not sleep deprived and try to avoid stress as much as possible. Keep in mind that the triggers can differ per epilepsy type and per person.
Research
Depending on whether someone still regularly suffers from seizures, epilepsy can certainly affect the daily life of the patient and the immediate environment
The outlook also differs greatly per epilepsy, in most cases epilepsy is easily treatable through medication or surgery. When someone still regularly suffers from seizures, this will influence certain choices of someone, such as education, work and sports.
Much is still unknown about epilepsy. More scientific research is desperately needed to gain more knowledge about epilepsy and to improve treatment options. The Brain Center does a lot of research into difficult-to-treat epilepsy. Specialists from different departments work together on this. We translate the results into our patient care as quickly as possible.
For more information, visit www.umcutrecht.nl and www.epilepsy.nl
By Stefanie Kruizinga