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Research Paper On Epilepsy

Decent Essays

Juliana Lopez
Honors Biology
Period 4
May 13, 2016
Epilepsy (rough draft) More than 200,000 Americans have epilepsy. Epilepsy a neurological disorder in which nerve cells are disturbed that then produces seizures. There are different types of seizures: convulsive and non-convulsive. In convulsive seizures an abnormal brain activity occurs. The person loses control and can become unconscious. The person will also move their limbs vigorously. In non-convulsive seizures the person will space out and not be aware of their surroundings. Seizures usually last up to 5 minutes. There are many ways to treat epilepsy. The most common way of treatment is through medication. These medications are anticonvulsant drugs. There are many factors that need …show more content…

My aunt, Petra (45), currently struggles with epilepsy. My great-uncle and cousin, Ester (6), also struggled with epilepsy. When growing up, my aunt did not get the proper treatment for her disorder. Now as an adult she receives the proper medication for her needs. When she was younger she would have convulsive seizures very often. Now she only has seizures when she depressed or doesn’t take her medication. My cousin is only 6 years old. She was diagnosed with epilepsy when she was 2 years old. The doctors immediately treated her with the appropriate medication and has been seizure free for 2 years. My family seems to show that we can genetically inherit epilepsy. There are different ways a child can develop epilepsy. Head injuries and traumas can cause the development of epilepsy. Brain injuries can either happen when not enough oxygen travels to the brain or when impacted very hard in the head. The child will usually have at least one seizure in the first week of the injury. The seizures that come from this are called post-traumatic seizures. In the brain the neuron’s axon is stretched and injured. This causes an interruption in the communication with other parts of the brain. This interruption makes the nerve cells react inappropriately and cause …show more content…

Research to see how it is transferred has been done. The project Epilepsy Phenome/Genome had taken people to study epilepsy and genetics. The articles states, “Since 2007, when the project began, its team of several hundred physicians and staff has collected blood samples and clinical information from more than 4,000 patients with epilepsy and their family members.” The DNA in the blood was studied. The researchers also linked different conditions and tied them to epilepsy. One example is, “For more common types of epilepsy, including the two investigated in this study -- infantile spasms and Lennox-Gastaut syndrome -- the condition is thought to arise from a combination of inherited mutations and random mutations that occur after birth, called de novo mutations. Identifying these de novo mutations is critical to understanding why some people with a family risk of the disease never develop it, while others do, and why certain medications are more effective in some patients than others.” By the end, researchers had found some evidence. “The study analysis revealed de novo (random) mutations on nine specific genes with four mutations being completely new ones never before associated with epilepsy.” Genetically inheritance of epilepsy is usually associated with children because it is detected in the early years of life. Adults can also have epilepsy because it was genetically inherited but usually by the time they are adults they

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