Symptoms of Epilepsy

There are certain diseases in the history of medical science that remained shrouded in mystery in any respects and epilepsy is one of such disorders. The symptoms of epilepsy though mainly manifest in seizures it can be of varied types. As to term it clinically epilepsy is a chronic neurological disorder. As per latest estimates more than 50 million people worldwide suffers from epilepsy and majority of this population belong to developing countries, though until now there is no specific connection between the disease and its socio economic routes. There are several factors that can contribute to epilepsy including lifestyle factors such as consuming alcohol to medicinal reactions to certain incidents or medical operations.

A person can experience relapse of the symptoms of epilepsy years or months after the treatment and as the medical experience shows epilepsy is a type of disease that can best be controlled than permanently cured, though more than 30% of the epilepsy patients do not experience any improvement or control of their seizures in spite of treatment. Epileptic seizures for centuries have been subject to various religious cultural associations in several parts of the world until it became the subject of modern scientific study. Let us now have a look at the clinical factors leading to this disease and the symptoms of epilepsy.

Clinical description

Epilepsy as we have already mentioned is a complex and chronic neurological disease and the symptoms of epilepsy primarily manifests in seizures. These seizures as medical condition that characterizes epilepsy can be recurrent. Unprovoked recurring seizure though is more common as the symptom of epilepsy, there can as well be a medical condition when due to the alterations in the brain by a single seizure the chances of occurring future seizures increases. Various factors lead to the abnormal electric signals in the brain and thus causes seizures and so epilepsy is not clinically considered to be a single, vertically defined, homogenous disease. Epilepsy denotes a set of disorders corresponding to neurological function.

Clinical symptoms

According to contributory factors and operative area and nature of seizure epilepsy can be classified into various types. How much of the brain and neurological function is affected by the seizure according to that practitioners classify epilepsy mainly into two broad categories, respectively as partial seizures and generalized seizures. Again partial seizure is classified into two different types, namely simple Partial seizure and complex partial seizure. Some of the other types of seizures include atomic seizure, myoclonic jerks, absence seizures, clonic seizure, tonic seizure, etc. Some of the common symptoms of epilepsy and their respective types are mentioned below. There can be symptoms or typical feelings that vary from person to person and indicate the coming of a seizure. In medical terminology these typical symptoms before manifestation of the actual seizures are called as aura and we would separately mention them here.

Simple Partial Seizure

Partial seizure is the type of epilepsy that affects only part of your brain or neurological function. When one gets through simple partial seizure he or she does not lose consciousness. Some of the commonly observed symptoms of epilepsy that occurs in patients suffering from simple partial seizure include the following.

1. Changes in sensory perception including smell, taste, look, feel or sound.
2. Feeling intensely emotional that often comes out in tears or blushing in joy.
3. Stiffening twisting muscles.
4. A typical tingling sensation in the arms and legs.

Complex partial seizure

In contrast to the simple one in complex partial seizure you just cannot respond to the surrounding or anyone in particular, neither can your memory remember what just happened to you. Complex partial seizure manifests in random symptoms that include the following.

1. Frantic body movements like rubbing hands, smacking lips, moving arms around, etc.
2. Grabbing clothes, getting hold of surrounding objects frantically is also observed as symptoms.
3. Making incomprehensible noise is another prominent symptom of this seizure.

Generalized seizure

Generalized seizure that manifests in mainly being completely unconscious is the most common among the symptoms of epilepsy. Some of the common types include absence seizure which is nothing but losing sense of the surrounding for some time, Myoclonic jerks which is nothing but getting a feeling of an electric shock in the arms or the legs, clonic seizure which is similar to that of myoclonic jerks except the fact that this lasts longer and may cause losing consciousness, Atonic seizure which happens due to suddenly reflexive muscles that make a person fall on the ground and finally tonic seizure which is stiffening of the muscles all of a sudden.