Keeping Your Epilepsy In Check, Part 1: Medication
People who have epilepsy don’t always “randomly” have seizures. Did you know that many people can expect seizures based on certain triggers?
Today, Aura America begins a three-part series on how avoiding these triggers can help prevent seizures. Let’s take a closer look at how not taking antiseizure medication like you’re supposed to can increase the risk of seizures.
Epilepsy Triggers
There are a lot of different triggers for people with epilepsy. Some common seizure triggers include:
Stress
Lack of sleep
Illnesses
Flashing lights
Reading
Certain noises or frequencies
Certain patterns or colors
Alcohol
Caffeine
Poor eating habits
Not taking medication as prescribed
Taking Your Epilepsy
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Use a monthly or weekly pillbox to put your pills in.
Take your medicine at the same time another family member takes their medicine.
Schedule your medicine at the same time as a routine, like as soon as you wake up.
Don’t be afraid to have a loved one remind you to take your meds. We all know what it’s like to hit snooze or dismiss on our phone alarms.
Keep a medicine chart for little kids to mark off the day and time they’ve taken their medication. Consider rewarding them if they’ve taken their medication correctly for a week or a month (longer TV time, a treat at the store, having a friend over, etc.).
If your kid will be staying with a friend or another family member, be sure to discuss medication times and doses with the parent or family member beforehand.
If you don’t have your medicine:
Always keep at least one dose with you in your purse or wallet.
Leave a note on the door or in your phone if you’re going out and need to bring it, or to make sure you have enough in your pill case.
Always make sure your prescription is filled before you need it so you won’t run out. Set a phone reminder to do this if you forget, or use your pharmacy’s
Sometime old age people is not capable of memories all medicine, time to take medicine and open a hard tighten bottles. Therefore, old people require compliance promoting packaging tool which dispense a proper medicine automatically and remind them to take a medicine on time, and easy to operate. Systems such as the e-pill automatic medication dispensers and organizers offer additional features to help ensure dispense of the right medications, the right dosage, and the right time for up to 28 days (Kim et al., 2015). Tools like e-pill is extremely helpful to an older people for medication compliance and it is also helpful on long-term treatments at home because this tool automatically dispense an appropriate count of
Studies have shown that 9 out of 10 people will have a seizure in their lifetime. Every person is different not every case is the same. There is no known cure for this disability. There are studies that are going on today that are trying to find out more about Epilepsy.
Epilepsy is a neurological disorder characterized by recurrent and uncertain intrusions of normal brain function, called epileptic seizure (Fisher et al., 2005). The word epilepsy was derived from the Greek word “attack”. The primitive Greeks thought epilepsy was contagious, and hence people with epilepsy used to live alone (Dam, 2003). It is one of the oldest conditions known to humankind (WHO, 2001a) and still the most common neurological condition affecting individuals of all ages. At any given time, it is appraise that 50 million individuals worldwide have a detection of epilepsy (WHO, 2001b). Epilepsy is charaterised by the incident of at least two unprovoked events of recurrent disruption in neurological function. Epilepsy is not a single prognosis but is a symptom with many fundamental causes. (Nunes et al., 2012).
Epilepsy, also known as “seizure disorder,” or “seizure attack,” is the fourth most common neurological disorder known to mankind, affecting an estimated 2.3 million adults and 467,711 children in the United States. Unfortunately this disorder is becoming far more common and widespread worldwide. This staggering number of cases of people suffering from Epilepsy also involves an average growth rate of 150,000 new cases each year in the United States alone. Generally, many of the people who develop who are a part of the new are mainly either young children or older adults. Your brain communicates through chemical and electrical signals that are all specialized for specific tasks. However, through the process of communication, chemical messengers, also known as neurotransmitters can suddenly fail, resulting in what is known as a seizure attack. Epilepsy occurs when a few too many brain cells become excited, or activated simultaneously, so that the brain cannot function properly and to it’s highest potential. Epilepsy is characterized when there is an abnormal imbalance in the chemical activity of the brain, leading to a disruption in the electrical activity of the brain. This disruption specifically occurs in the central nervous system (CNS), which is the part of the nervous system that contains the brain and spinal cord. This causes an interruption in communication between presynaptic neurons and postsynaptic neurons; between the axon of one neuron, the message sender and the dendrite of another neuron, the message recipient. Consequently, the effects that epileptic seizures may induce may range anywhere from mild to severe, life-threatening ramifications and complications. There are many different types of seizures associa...
Epilepsy is a very common neurological disorder. Some reports estimate that five in one-thousand people suffer from this problem. Throughout history, people with epilepsy have been shunned or considered inferior. Even today, ignorance leads many people to treat the epileptic as "abnormal" or "retarded". Although the etiology of epilepsy is still not fully understood, it is quite treatable due to advances in modern medicine.
Not everyone who has a seizure has epilepsy. Epilepsy is a chronic neurological disorder characterized by recurrent, unprovoked seizures. Unprovoked means that there is no immediate cause for the seizure, such as a fever, an infection of the brain, or head trauma. Nearly 10 percent of people will have a seizure during their lifetime; most of these are provoked seizures during an acute illness or condition. These people may never have epilepsy. There are two types of seizures people can have. One is partial seizure or focal they begin in one part of the brain. They cause varied symptoms auras which is a funny feeling in your stomach, staring, chewing, lip smacking, shaking, or stiffness in parts of the body. Generalized seizures are when the entire brain is effected. This causes loss consciousness. One type is grand mal is when the body stiffens and jerks. Another type is petit mal, which is momentary loss of consciousness without abnormal body movement. Some factors of this are infections of the brain this includes meningitis, encephalitis, and brain abscess. Strokes are also a risk of epilepsy. Also alcohol can cause seizures for heavy drinkers when they stop drinking abruptly (withdrawal seizures) and also have a good chance of epilepsy. Epilepsy can also cause brain tumors usually they are slow growing and don't affect them for years. Some other factors that cause epilepsy is age the risk of seizures is higher in young children. Also gender epilepsy is higher in males than in females. The most common treatment for epilepsy is the daily use of anticonvulsant or antiepilectic drugs to prevent seizures. These medications act on brain signals to limit hyperexcitability. While medications do not cure epilepsy, they allow many people to live normal, active lives. Other treatments are vagus nerve stimulation this treatment involves electronic stimulation of the brain using an implanted device like a pacemaker. Another is epilepsy surgery this is when a part of the brain that is causing the seizures is removed so that it prevents it from spreading to anther part of the brain.
Epilepsy can be caused by a variety of incidents or have no known cause at all. Seizures are caused when anything causes a disruption of a burst of electricity in the brain (NINDS Epilepsy Information Page). Seizures can be triggered by strokes, diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease, brain injuries, congenital brain defects, brain tumors, abnormal vessels in the brain, and many more (Epilepsy). Having one seizure does not mean a person has epilepsy. Only someone who has had two or more seizures can be considered epileptic (NINDS Epilepsy Information Page). Usually an epileptic person has a strange repetitive sensation called an “aura” before their seizures. An aura can be a sensation of tingling, mood changes, or smelling odors which are not actually there. Three types of seizures can occur with epilepsy: absence seizure, known as petit mal; generalized tonic-clonic seizure, known as grand mal; and partial seizure, known as a focal seizure. A petit mal seizure is the least severe of the three. Petit mal consists of a simple staring spell lasting for usually around fifteen seconds and can occur several times throughout the day. A grand mal seizure produces convulsions of the whole body including involuntary biting, inconti...
Epilepsy is a disorder of the brain characterized by an enduring predisposition to generate epileptic seizures,1 and by the neurobiological, cognitive, psychological and social consequences of this condition. An epileptic seizure is a brief disturbance of consciousness, behavior, emotion, motor function, or sensation that is due to abnormal electrical discharge in the brain.2 In partial-onset epilepsy, these bursts of electrical activity are initially focused in specific areas of the brain, but may become more generalized, with symptoms varying according to the affected areas. Epilepsy is the most common serious neurological condition in the UK.3 The World Health Organization (WHO) estimated its prevalence to be affecting approximately 5-8 per 1000 people.4 Anti-epileptic drugs (AEDs) are the major therapeutic option. Over a dozens of AEDs are introduced in the last 2 decades (Table 1.1). Between 1990 and 2011, 15 new antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) were approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and/or by the European Medicines Agency (EMA). These drugs are Eslicarbazepine ace...
A seizure is considered to be anything that disrupts the natural circuit of the brain. When a seizure happens, the brains neurons fire uncontrollably, causing the brain to make the body jerk, abruptly fall, or have distorted vision. The normal electrical balance in the brain is lost, the nerve cells misfire, and there is a sudden, brief, uncontrollable burst of abnormal electrical activity. This causes out of sync signals from the brain to misfire (Sahoo, 2014). There are over 3 million people who suffer from epilepsy in the United States alone, with most of them being diagnosed by the time they are twenty-five years old.( Epilepsy Foundation, 2014).
Later, the doctors told me I had epilepsy, specifically the type known as grand mal. Immediately, the doctors put me on some medications to prevent the seizures. They also gave my parents a bunch of packets of information about epilepsy. When I got older, some of those packets informed me that 20-25 million people have suffered from an epileptic seizure. Many people grow out of childhood epilepsy or they take medicine to control it. However, there is still a risk of having a seizure even if you take medication. Over the past few years, I have become increasingly aware of the chance of a seizure at any time.
Epilepsy is a condition characterized by recurrent seizures which are unprovoked by any immediately identifiable cause (Hopkins & Shorvon, 1995). It is also known as a seizure disorder. A wide range of links and risk factors are associated with the condition, but most of the time the cause is unknown. Epilepsy is one of the most common neurological disorders, affecting approximately two and half million people in the US and about 50 million worldwide. Though seizures can occur at any age, epilepsy is most commonly seen in children and the elderly. Most respond well to treatment and can control their seizures, but for some it is a chronic illness. A clinical diagnosis is the first step to finding a potential cure for the disorder.
Proper medication management among older adults can be challenging. Older persons may not fully understand the purpose of the medication and the importance of following the prescription as directed. Over the counter medication, herbs and supplements may not be considered medication; therefore, they do not inform their health care provider that they are taking them. Multiple health care providers can result in duplication of orders or adverse drug reactions. Improper management of medication may lead to adverse drug events ultimately extending a hospitalization or decreasing an older adult’s ability to function safely. Obtaining an accurate record of medications at all points of care promotes safer medication administration and prevents adverse events.
This paper is going to discuss the condition Epilepsy. Epilepsy is defined as a disorder of the brain characterized by the recurrence of unprovoked seizures (Shorvon, 2009). Epilepsy starts in your brain, the brain is like a computer, it is made up of a mass of cells, called neurons, which connect to each other in very complicated ways (Routh, 2004). Electrical messages are constantly being passed from one neuron to another down nerves to the muscles in the body (Mair, 2004). If a person has epilepsy, these cells sometimes send a sudden, unexpected burst of electrical impulses, which causes a seizure (Routh, 2004). When the seizure finishes the brain behaves normally again. For some people with epilepsy these seizures happen every day. For others they may happen only once or twice a year (Routh, 2004). There are over 40 different types of seizure and each person is slightly different, but there are a few common types (Routh, 2004). Generalized seizures which affect the whole brain and partial seizures which affect a small part of the brain (Miller, 2013). The most common types of ge...
2. Discuss what is means if the patient is diagnosed with epilepsy? What are some of the different types?
While epilepsy affects millions of people, it is still not understood by a vast majority of the population. If more people were educated of this particular disorder, recognizing it as well as having the common knowledge to treat it, would be a highly beneficial to millions of people