Just because I freak out doesn’t mean you have to – Epilepsy Awareness
When taking a patient’s history, we’re supposed to ask them about any medical conditions they might have. We usually ask about hypertension, diabetes, heart disease, asthma, cancers and epilepsy. Usually, the one that patients are unsure of is epilepsy. There doesn’t seem to be as much public awareness about epilepsy as something like, say, diabetes. And perhaps that’s why November has been designated ‘Epilepsy Awareness Month’
So what is epilepsy? Well my textbook defines it as “a disorder of the brain characterised by an enduring predisposition to generate seizures and by the neurobiologic, cognitive, psychologic, and social consequences of this condition.” If you’re thinking that that sounds like a mouthful, that makes two of us. People tend to refer to seizures as “fits”. And persons with epilepsy are predisposed to having these “fits”.
And epilepsy doesn’t just mean having seizures; there are other consequences of epilepsy. The psychologic and social consequences – epilepsy is associated with an increased likelihood of depression, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
Perhaps because epilepsy isn’t talked about as much as it should be, misinformation about seizures and dealing with them have been allowed to be passed on as “fact”. Some persons actually think that epilepsy is a “mental disease” and individuals afflicted with the condition are “mental”. In clinic, we saw a patient whose mom said that she usually tries to put a spoon in her daughter’s mouth during a seizure because she heard that that was the right thing to do. It’s not. It’s actually a big no-no. Putting anything into someone’s mouth while they’re having a seizure is more likely to cause them injury. You also shouldn’t try to restrain their movements or hold them down.
So what should you do if someone has a seizure? You should remove any objects that might injure them from the surrounding area. Time the seizure and stay with them until they’ve recovered. For seizures that involve the person shaking or jerking uncontrollably, you should place something soft under their head to act as a cushion to prevent injury. You should turn them gently onto one side (the recovery position) – this will help them breathe.
There are different types of seizures and each type presents differently. When most people think of a seizure, they think of a generalised tonic-clinic seizure, the type where the person becomes stiff and then starts jerking uncontrollably. Some seizures, called “absence seizures”, involve the person ‘blanking out’ for a few seconds.
With appropriate medical attention and awareness about the condition, epilepsy can be a manageable condition. But we need to start having more conversations about epilepsy – and not just in November.
