Symptomatic epilepsy

placeholding invisible text

Average rating:

In some cases, an underlying brain condition or brain damage causes epilepsy. Some conditions are present at birth. Some conditions develop later in life. There are many such conditions. For example: a patch of scar tissue in a part of the brain, a head injury, stroke, cerebral palsy, some genetic syndromes, tumours of the brain, previous infections of the brain such as meningitis, encephalitis, etc. The condition may 'irritate' the surrounding brain cells and trigger seizures.

Some underlying conditions may cause no other problems apart from seizures. In other cases, the underlying condition may cause other problems or disabilities in addition to the seizures.

These days, with more advanced scans and tests, a cause can be found for some cases previously thought to be idiopathic (unknown cause). For example, a small piece of scar tissue in the brain, or a small anomaly of some blood vessels inside the brain. These may now be found by modern brain scanning equipment which is more sophisticated than in the past.

What triggers a seizure?

There is often no apparent reason why a seizure occurs at one time and not another. However, some people with epilepsy find that certain 'triggers' make a seizure more likely. These are not the cause of epilepsy, but may trigger a seizure on some occasions. Possible triggers include:
* Stress or anxiety.
* Heavy drinking.
* Street drugs.
* Some medicines such as anti-depressants, anti-psychotic medication.
* Lack of sleep, or tiredness.
* Irregular meals which cause a low blood sugar.
* Flickering lights, such as from strobe lighting.
* Menstruation (periods).
* Illnesses which cause fever, such as 'flu or other infections.