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Epilepsy Research Paper

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Between homework and seizures: What is the chronological disorder epilepsy, including the diagnosis and treatments, what are social effects for patients with epilepsy in adolescence, according to the areas school education and friendships, and are psychological disorders, such as depression, anxiety and schizophrenia, ascribable to the neurological disorder?
Epilepsy is a chronic brain disorder, characterized by recurrent seizures, which are unprovoked. Around five percent of all people have one epileptically seizure in their lives. However, this does not meant that the person has epilepsy. Neurologists only talk about “actual” epilepsy, which is defined as a person having at least two seizures in one year. Around sixty million people in …show more content…

In fact, nerve cells in the brain send out electrical impulses, which are very excessive. At the time of seizure, the brain can be described as an electrical storm of neurons, because they are discharged five hundred times faster per second that usual. If this happens, the person has a seizure. However, even though all seizures happen because of the same fact, there are over twenty different kinds of epilepsy. It is important to distinguish between the two common types, focal and generalized. A focal seizure affects only one specific area in the brain. Around fifty to sixty percent of all children and teenagers have focal seizures. It can happen that the focal seizure spreads and starts to involve other parts of the brain, as well. This is called a generalized seizure then. During a generalized seizure, the entire brain is involved and the seizure is therefore not limited to one part of the body, but includes the entire body. The most common kind of a generalized seizure is the tonic-clonic seizure (grand-mal). This seizures starts with a loss of consciousness and falling, followed by a tonic muscle stiffness, which goes over into the clonic phase, which is a rapidly contraction and relaxation of the muscles. The patient can be injured during the fall or cramp, if it occurs in a dangerous area. Overall, an epileptically seizure …show more content…

This treatment is only possible if the patient suffers with focal epilepsy, which means that the seizures are always starting in one part of the brain. If this is the case and the focus does not include any important part of the brain, then the focus can be removed surgically. However, it is very important to weigh the benefits and the risks of a surgery. If a patient has normal motor functions but the seizures are starting in the middle of the motor region, it would be a very high risk to remove that area surgically because it could lead to degradation of the motor function. It can be said that brain surgery is very effective against seizures, but also includes many side effects. The efficiency of the brain decreases and it takes several years to increase again. Teenagers have problems in school afterwards and the grades will drop, which can be very frustrating. Even though the brain surgery is usually successful against the seizures, it can also cause psychological disorders, because of the decreased brain efficiency. Dr. Stroble, a German neurologist said that it is always a long way to find the right treatment. Even though the drug medication and the brain surgery are the most common ones, they both include psychological problems for the patient. It is possible that they are caused as a side effect from the medication or from the surgery, but it is also possible that they are caused because of the long way that the

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