In the case of idiopathic or constitutional epilepsy there is no neurologic abnormality and no specific cause can be identified. Seizures usually begin between five and twenty years of age, but they may start later in life.
In the case of symptomatic epilepsy we know the causes. These might vary on a wide range. The most common causes are congenital abnormalities and perinatal injuries, metabolic disorders (withdrawal from alcohol, or drugs, uremia, hypoglycemia, hyperglycemia), trauma, tumors and other space occupying lesions, vascular diseases, degenerative disorders, infectious diseases and many others. Diagnosis and therapy
The diagnosis is typically made based on the description of the seizure and the underlying cause. Electroencephalogram …show more content…
Surgery is also an option for people with partial seizures that remain a problem despite other treatment. Common procedures include cutting out the hippocampus via an anterior temporal lobe resectionremoval of tumors, and removing parts of neocortex.
Stigmatization and patron saint
The history of epilepsy goes back even before the history of humankind because in the brain of a cat or a dog can occur the same chain of electric discharge as in the human brain. From the very beginning it was considered the „sacred disease”. Sometimes they thought the seizure is an act of demonic action, other times they considered the patient is has a divine vision. If they considered the patient malefic, then he was cursed, imprisoned or persecuted. If he was considered to have a divine isnpiration (mostly beacuse of the fact that he could so easily get into an altered state of consciousness), they admired him.
On the egyiptean hieroglyphs the sign of the seizure is water, folded material, two papyrus leafes or bread-crumb twisted by the snake of Ureus. This sigfnified divine manifestation, whereas the man with the snake symbolized the death of the
In the case of symptomatic epilepsy we know the causes. These might vary on a wide range. The most common causes are congenital abnormalities and perinatal injuries, metabolic disorders (withdrawal from alcohol, or drugs, uremia, hypoglycemia, hyperglycemia), trauma, tumors and other space occupying lesions, vascular diseases, degenerative disorders, infectious diseases and many others. Diagnosis and therapy
The diagnosis is typically made based on the description of the seizure and the underlying cause. Electroencephalogram …show more content…
Surgery is also an option for people with partial seizures that remain a problem despite other treatment. Common procedures include cutting out the hippocampus via an anterior temporal lobe resectionremoval of tumors, and removing parts of neocortex.
Stigmatization and patron saint
The history of epilepsy goes back even before the history of humankind because in the brain of a cat or a dog can occur the same chain of electric discharge as in the human brain. From the very beginning it was considered the „sacred disease”. Sometimes they thought the seizure is an act of demonic action, other times they considered the patient is has a divine vision. If they considered the patient malefic, then he was cursed, imprisoned or persecuted. If he was considered to have a divine isnpiration (mostly beacuse of the fact that he could so easily get into an altered state of consciousness), they admired him.
On the egyiptean hieroglyphs the sign of the seizure is water, folded material, two papyrus leafes or bread-crumb twisted by the snake of Ureus. This sigfnified divine manifestation, whereas the man with the snake symbolized the death of the