Seizure (cont.)
What Are the Different Kinds of Seizures?
Doctors have described more than 30 different types of seizures. Seizures are
divided into two major categories -- focal seizures and generalized seizures.
However, there are many different types of seizures in each of these categories.
Focal Seizures
Focal seizures, also called partial seizures, occur in just one part of the
brain. About 60 percent of people with epilepsy have focal seizures. These
seizures are frequently described by the area of the brain in which they
originate. For example, someone might be diagnosed with focal frontal lobe
seizures.
In a simple focal seizure, the person will remain conscious but experience
unusual feelings or sensations that can take many forms. The person may
experience sudden and unexplainable feelings of joy, anger, sadness, or nausea. He or she also
may hear, smell, taste, see, or feel things that are not real.
In a complex focal seizure, the person has a change in or
loss of consciousness. His or her consciousness may be altered, producing a
dreamlike experience. People having a complex focal seizure may display strange,
repetitious behaviors such as blinks, twitches, mouth movements, or even walking
in a circle. These repetitious movements are called automatisms. More
complicated actions, which may seem purposeful, can also occur involuntarily.
Patients may also continue activities they started before the seizure began,
such as washing dishes in a repetitive, unproductive fashion. These seizures
usually last just a few seconds.
Some people with focal seizures, especially complex focal seizures, may
experience auras -- unusual sensations that warn of an impending seizure. These
auras are actually simple focal seizures in which the person maintains
consciousness. The symptoms an individual person has, and the progression of
those symptoms, tend to be stereotyped, or similar every time.
The symptoms of focal seizures can easily be confused with other disorders.
For instance, the dreamlike perceptions associated with a complex focal seizure
may be misdiagnosed as migraine headaches, which also may cause a dreamlike
state. The strange behavior and sensations caused by focal seizures also can be
mistaken for symptoms of narcolepsy, fainting, or even mental illness. It may
take many tests and careful monitoring by an experienced physician to tell the
difference between epilepsy and other disorders.
Next: Generalized Seizures »
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