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Epilepsy
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Definition of Epilepsy
Epilepsy is any of various neurological disorders characterized by sudden recurring attacks of motor, sensory, or psychic malfunction with or without loss of consciousness or convulsive seizures.
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How to choose a protective helmet
The doctor or another health care professional has just advised you to buy a protective helmet because your child's seizures have been causing sudden drops or falls that may cause head injury. But what type of helmet is best for your child? Where you should you go to get one?
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Mistakes Doctors Make
When I talk to other doctors about epilepsy, I try to offer a few bits of my own experience in diagnosing the condition and caring for patients. I find that my own shortcomings are a good source of "pearls," and examining them reminds me not to fall back on bad habits. Examining past mistakes is a good habit, one that doctors in general do not practice often enough, at least publicly. We seldom discuss our mistakes. They are denied, repressed, or whispered about in corners. We rarely publish accounts of our spectacular misdiagnoses or therapeutic failures. Published articles on new drugs or surgical procedures highlight success and safety. It is a struggle to find a single article that focuses on failures. That is a pity, because mistakes and failures are highly instructive.
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Has Your Epilepsy Treatment Failed? Who Decides?
Whether your epilepsy treatment is a success or a failure often depends on whom you ask. Your doctor may judge it by the numbers: How many seizures do you have if you take so many milligrams of medication? If more milligrams or more medications equal fewer seizures, that's progress, and no seizures at all equals success. You or your family, on the other hand, may see a different equation. You'd certainly like to have no seizures, but you'd also like to be alert, awake, and free of the other physical and emotional effects that seizure medicines so often produce.
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A Remarkable Position to Be In
Imagine being overwhelmed, utterly without warning, by a strange smell, a sensation of electric shock in an arm or leg, flashes of brilliant light, a dreadful fear, or a powerful sense of déjà vu. Imagine such episodes occurring repeatedly and unpredictably, causing either a temporary sensory change or unintended movements or facial expressions, or robbing the power of speech production or comprehension. Such is the world of an epilepsy patient. It is not hard to see why the ancients thought that an individual in the midst of an epileptic seizure was possessed by a supernatural spirit, for what natural force could possibly have such power?
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Patient-doctor relationship: Getting the most out of it.
One of the most critical components of the health care delivery process is the interaction between the care provider and the patient and family. Research tells us that people do better when they understand and clearly participate in their health care. However, participating and understanding is not always easy, for a variety of reasons. The purpose of this article is to discuss barriers to effective communication with your physician and offer tools to assist in communicating in an effective way.
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Could It Be...Satan?
Sitting in front of our computers, we feel pretty sure that we live in a modern world, much "advanced" from the time centuries ago when epilepsy was thought to be caused by demons. That's why it's a shock to read an article like the one that appeared in The Boston Sunday Globe on September 2, 2001, telling of an old man in Slovakia who murdered an 80-year-old woman because he thought that her witchcraft was responsible for his granddaughter's epilepsy.
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Folk beliefs about epilepsy: Some recent studies
A comparison of beliefs about epilepsy among several groups in central Africa and Central and South America. The researchers found that belief in a spiritual or supernatural cause is prevalent in these cultures and that patients get psychological benefit from traditional remedies even if western-style treatment is also available.
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Epilepsy and witchcraft: A brief history
"But there is no bodily infirmity, not even leprosy or epilepsy, which cannot be caused by witches…. For we have often found that certain people have been visited with epilepsy or the falling sickness by means of eggs which have been buried with dead bodies, especially the dead bodies of witches, together with other ceremonies of which we cannot speak, particularly when these eggs have been given to a person either in food or drink.
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Don't let myths and misconceptions rule your life!
A diagnosis of epilepsy raises so many questions: Will I ever be able to drive a car? What about a good job? Can I have children? All these uncertainties may cause you more worry than the seizures themselves. Like cancer and leprosy, epilepsy has been feared and stigmatized throughout history, and you have probably heard many stories about it. The fear and shame associated with epilepsy have faded over the past century, but they have not vanished. They will not disappear entirely until many more people are informed about the facts concerning epilepsy.
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Mistaken ideas keep many away from surgery
In the United States alone, hundreds of thousands of people have seizures that are not well controlled by medication. A quarter to a half of these people are candidates for epilepsy surgery. Yet the number of operations performed continues to be small. Why do so few take advantage of a treatment that is likely to greatly improve their quality of life?
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The Effects of Antibiotics on Seizure Medications
Seizure medicines can affect the way the body handles antibiotics. But the reverse is also true: some antibiotics affect levels of seizure medicines. If you are taking doxycycline (Vibramycin) for anthrax exposure or any other purpose and you also take carbamazepine (Tegretol, Carbatrol), your doctor should be aware that doxycycline may lower the level of carbamazepine in your blood and possibly make seizures more likely.
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Anthrax and Epilepsy
Anxiety about anthrax has been on everyone's mind lately. In reaction to the news reports, you might think your flu-like symptoms could be anthrax, and you might decide to take Cipro (ciproflaxin)—the antibiotic that has received the most publicity of late for its use against anthrax. Think again. Read the fine print of the news stories, and you will find a special warning against Cipro. Medical experts know that in certain individuals, Cipro increases the risk of developing seizures. "People most at risk for taking Cipro either have epilepsy or are already having seizures," explains Gregory L. Barkley, M.D., chair-elect of the Epilepsy Foundation's Professional Advisory Board. "Also, the medication can instigate seizures in individuals who have a strong family history of seizures, or carry certain risk factors for epilepsy, such as significant past head injuries."
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The Flu Season: Do you need to worry about medication interactions?
The winter months are a time when sore throats, runny noses, bronchitis, and the flu are common illnesses. They may require you to take either over-the-counter medication or medication prescribed by your medical doctor. You may wonder if your seizures or your seizure medicine will be affected by taking another medication. The best approach is to ask your neurologist or nurse before starting any new medication, but there are some guidelines to follow to avoid any problems with interactions between your seizure medicines and treatments for colds and flu.
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Awareness of Drug Interactions: The Relationship Between Contraceptives and AEDs
Until the mid-1980’s women with epilepsy were advised not to use oral contraceptives (OC). This contraindication was based on animal studies showing exacerbation of seizures by estrogen. However, not only do the low estrogen doses in currently-used OCs make this unlikely, but the concept has never been proven in patient studies (Mattson & Cramer, 1985).
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