Seizure Symptoms – Term Paper

In a nutshell, the general symptoms of seizure include the staring spell, loss of consciousness, uncontrollable jerking and psychic symptoms. One is advised to seek medical attention when the seizure lasts for more than five minutes. If a second seizure follows immediately, one needs to see the doctor easily. If the breathing or consciousness doesn’t return after the seizure stops or if the patient has experienced heat exhaustion. If an individual has experienced a seizure for the first time, one need to seek medical advice.

Having seizure can lead to various circumstances that can cause complications. When one falls during a seizure, they can injure their head or break their neck. If epilepsy occurs, one becomes 15 to 19 minutes likely to drown while swimming or even bathing than the rest of the population. A seizure is dangerous as it can cause car accident when the driver loses awareness or even control. It can also lead to pregnancy complications posing a danger to both the mother and the baby. The situation needs to be often checked, or it can easily result in unexplained death whereby the cause is known but the research done will indicate that the person died from the heart or respiratory condition.

Partial and generalized seizure

A seizure occurs in different categories. They are classified into two groups which are partial and generalized. 

Partial Seizures

This category of seizure is often very subtle and rare. Due to its nature of being unnoticed, it can go unnoticed or can be confused with other events in the brain, therefore, spreading to other regions of the brain (Brandt & Puente, n.d.). When they spread to the rest of the brain, then they graduate, and they are now called generalized seizures, most commonly referred to as clonic seizure. The study has it that approximately 60% of people with partial seizure are sometimes very resistant to antiepileptic medications.

Simple partial seizures.

 There are short seizures that are usually called aura, and they can occur before a complex partial or tonic seizure but on their own. In this case, there is no loss of awareness or consciousness and they usually last less than a minute (Brandt & Puente, n.d.). The simple partial seizures include sensory numbness and a burning sensation in the region of the body. There is also jerking of limbs and twitching of face. The patient start blushing, having nausea and a racing heart. Hallucinations are also part of the simple partial seizure.

Complex Partial Seizures

A seizure is said to vary widely depending on the place they start in the brain. Various seizures begin with an individual having loss of expression or a vague and confused appearance (Jason Brandt & Antonio Puente, n.d.). Most of the individuals appear to have an altered consciousness and they might or might not respond. The individuals have a problem in answering such that if they do respond, they are usually inappropriate. In other context, people portray unusual behaviors that they keep on repeating. The partial seizure can last from 30 seconds to three minutes. After the seizure, the person wakes up feeling confused, and they might not even remember anything about the seizure.

Generalized Seizures

Generalized seizures are the most occurring seizure in the brain. Due to this fact, the seizure causes an individual to lose consciousness at the beginning of the seizure. A generalized seizure can occur after the simple seizure has occurred and as a result, they are termed as secondarily generalized tonic-clonic seizure (Cerqueira, Vieira, Maia & Sweet, 2007). These type of seizure are the most recognized as they begin with an abrupt loss of consciousness whereby the individual cry out. If the person was standing, then the person falls, and his or her body stiffens, a condition that is known as a tonic. The situation is followed by the jerking of muscle whereby the situation is referred to as the clonic.

The breathing of that person becomes suspended temporarily causing the lips and the complexion of the individual to turn grey or bluish. Most of the times, saliva accumulates in the person’s mouth, and if the patient happens to have bitten his or her tongue, there can be an accumulation of blood in the mouth (Cerqueira, et.al, 2007). The individual often has loss of bladder control; he gets confused after waking, and he is eventually followed by headaches and soreness. The seizure usually last approximately two minutes or less. Primary generalized seizure begins with a general electrical discharge that involves both sides of the brain at once. The seizures have got hereditary factors, and they are important since they are the main factors in considering the outcome of the seizures.

Etiology of Seizures.

Although many seizures are idiopathic, the abnormal electrical brain activity occurring with the seizure are often an identified cause. In the cellular level, the activity of seizure can be caused by an alteration in the permeability of the cell membrane or the movement of the ions across the cell membrane of the neurons. Other theories about the cellular etiology involve having the decreased inhibition of cortical or thalamic neuronal activity or the changes in the cell structure that alter cellular excitability. Etiology classification falls into two broad categories which are primary/unprovoked or idiopathic seizures and secondary protected or acute symptomatic seizures. Primary epilepsy comprises of 65% of the seizure disorder, and its cause might be probably be traced back to the disorder (Brandt & Puente, n.d.).

Secondary or provoked seizures account for the remaining 35% of the seizure disorder. The secondary or the provoked seizures can be prevented if the disorder can be traced. The prevention can only happen if the disorder can be traceable. A metabolic disorder like electrolyte imbalances, hypoxia, hypoglycemia, uremia, alkalois withdrawal of addictive drugs and the ingestion of toxins has been known to be linked to seizure disorders. The other space occupying lesions of the CNS is the subsequent seizure that affects individuals between the ages of 35-50 (Brandt & Puente, n.d.). The initial symptoms of the seizure patient’s amount to 40% and any disease that can be able to impair the blood flow in the body can provoke a seizure. The increase in the likelihood of a seizure increases with the increase of severity of cerebral ischemia. The vascular disease becomes the most common cause of seizure with atherosclerotic cerebrovascular insufficiency and cerebral infarction. The most common vascular disorder provoking seizures occur after the age of 60. Several infections of the CNS like bacterial meningitis, malaria, neurosyphilis, rallies, toxoplasmosis, brain abscesses and HIV-associated infection. The infection did usually account for almost 3 % of the acquired epilepsy and the other like acutely isolated seizure amounts for 10% to 24% (Brandt & Puente, n.d.).

The recent study indicated that the causes of seizures are usually a phenomenon named as photosensitive epilepsy which is the primary cause of seizure in children and adults that are exposed to geometric video pattern. The concept came to light when the Japanese children experienced seizures after watching a television show with colored, flickering lights (El-Radhi, 2015). In consideration of the dental factors, there are various causes of seizures like the hypoxia secondary to syncope, local anesthetic toxify and epilepsy. With some being entirely preventable with the assessment and proper patient management, making a medical history and reducing stress will enable the seizure caused by epilepsies to be preventable.