Childhood Epilepsy Essay

Seizures or epilepsy are brain disorders where the person has repeated convulsions over a period of time. They’re episodes of disturbed brain activity that cause changes in attention and behavior. Seizures are considered the most common observed neurological dysfunction in children. They are very sudden intermittent episodes of altered consciousness lasting seconds to minutes and include involuntary tonic (stiffening of muscles) and clonic (altering contraction and relaxation of muscles) movements.

It is hard to live with Epilepsy because that person with epilepsy has to be careful whenever they do something. The person with Epilepsy can take medicine to help control their chances of a seizure. Anyone can get Epilepsy. One in twenty-six people get Epilepsy, three million Americans have Epilepsy, sixty-five people worldwide have Epilepsy. Each year 200,000 people are diagnosed with Epilepsy. Epilepsy is a negative mutation, because it can make an Epileptic person die from have to many to many seizures, also because it makes new pathways on a Epileptic patient’s brain. As you can see there are a lot of people who have Epilepsy, they can still live their lives to the limit.

Epilepsy is a brain disorder in which individuals have recurrent seizures. Seizures can occur in children and adults of any age. There are around 50 million people in the world who has the disorder. Individuals in developing countries are at a higher risk for developing the disorder. Seizures occur due to hyper-excitability and hyper-synchronization of neurons. Action potential transmits messages and it leads to depolarization. When neurons are uncontrollably depolarizes because of hyper-excitability due to too little inhibition, it cause a seizure. Seizures can last from a few seconds to a few minutes. As spontaneously they can develop is also as fast and spontaneous they can end.

Seizure disorders, according to the Mayo Clinic (2015), affect approximately 1 in 26 people in the United States. Persistent, or chronic, seizures result from a condition called epilepsy, a neurological disorder of the central nervous system. It can affect anyone regardless of age, but is more common during early childhood and after age 60. Given the number of people that seizure disorders, such as epilepsy, affect, it becomes helpful to gain a foundational understanding of the disease, including some of the causes, symptoms, and treatments available.

An underlying problem that disrupts the brain's electrical activity. These are called physiologic non-epileptic seizures.

This paper is on epilepsy and seizures. The human brain is the source of all human epilepsy. (Steven C. Schachter, Patricia O. Shafer, Joseph I. Sirven, 2013) What is epilepsy? Epilepsy is sometimes referred to a seizure disorder, though not all seizures are related to epilepsy. According to the website Stony Brook Medicine, the reason a seizure occurs is because of an unexpected surge of electrical activity in the brain. (Stony Brook Medicine, 2014) Due to the overloading of electrical activity, it causes short-lived disturbance in the messaging system between the brain cells. The word epilepsy approaches from a Greek word 'epi' signifying 'upon or above' and the Greek word

Epilepsy Research Paper People most often associate violent twitching, falling to the floor and drooling with epilepsy. However the described event is only one kind of an epileptic seizure, which is called a tonic-clonic seizure. There are many other kinds of seizures, and each has different sets of signs and symptoms. During generalized seizures the whole brain is affected and the initial symptom is loss of consciousness. This category includes such seizures as absence seizure, myoclonic seizure, and atonic attack.

With ever-increasing cases of pediatric epilepsy, studies detailing the etiology of epilepsy and its association with developmental delay are progressively

Have had abnormal results from an electroencephalogram (EEG). This test measures electrical activity in the brain. An EEG can predict whether seizures will return (recur).

The topic to be researched is epilepsy. Epilepsy is a serious neurological disorder where the brain is prone to seizures. Seizures are caused by neurones in the brain receiving too much electrical activity. Recurring seizures are the only visible symptom of epilepsy. Epilepsy has 2 main types of seizures – generalised and partial. The type of seizure will depend on the brain area affected. Epilepsy is most commonly diagnosed during childhood – under the age of 15, and also during later stages of life – over the age of 65. Genetics can also play a part in some types of epilepsy, such as Lafora Progressive Myoclonic Epilepsy and Juvenile Myoclonic Epilepsy. As epilepsy is a disorder of the central nervous system it can affect the body in different

People uneducated about Epilepsy may have confused thoughts on what it really is. People have these "notions," which are partly or entirely not true. So, throughout this research paper, these notions will be proven untrue, mostly by factual information given by

Partial seizures can be further categorized into simple partial or complex partial seizures. The difference between simple and complex partial seizures whether or not consciousness is preserved or impaired; simple being the former and complex being the later. Another form of partial seizure is the secondary generalized in which it begins as a partial seizure and spreads to both hemispheres. Simple seizures are usually localized in areas of the brain relating to sensorimotor functions. Areas such as the occipital lobe, limbic system, and temporal lobe foci are typically effected resulting in the twitching, jerking, mood and emotion changes, and memory or personality changes characteristic of simple partial seizures. Complex partial seizures include the afore mentioned components but are accompanied by altered states of awareness usually experience as deja u and illusions. The temporal and frontal lobes are the two major areas implicated in these seizures. When a partial simple seizure spreads to both hemispheres it is called a secondarily generalized seizure (Miller et

Epilepsy, also called seizure disorder, chronic brain disorder that briefly interrupts the normal electrical activity of the brain to cause seizures, characterized by a variety of symptoms including uncontrolled movements of the body, disorientation or confusion, sudden fear, or loss of consciousness. Epilepsy may result from a head injury, stroke, brain tumor, lead poisoning, genetic conditions, or severe infections like meningitis or encephalitis. In over 70 percent of cases no cause for epilepsy were identified. About 1 percent of the world population, or over 2 million people, are diagnosed with epilepsy.

Epilepsy can happen to anyone of any age. The largest(47%) percent of people, developing epilepsy for the first time, being children from birth to nine years of age. The next largest age group would be ten year olds to ninteen year olds at 30%. The least amount of first time seizures comes from the forty plus age group. (According to EFA publications) Over 2.5 million people suffer from epilepsy. The international league against epilepsy describes a seizure as an alternative term for "epileptic attack". Seizures vary in there length and severity. A "tonic-clonic" seizure can last for one to seven minutes. " Absence seizures usually last for a few seconds. However, complex partial seizure" may last for thirty seconds or two

My uncontrollable seizures began when I was six weeks old and my young years were filled with days in the hospital, doctor appointments, therapy and lab tests. Finally, in sixth grade my severe epilepsy was controlled with several potent anti-seizure medications. The side effects from these medications contributed to my language limitation and I remained almost non verbal until second grade.