Epilepsy is a disease in which a disorder of consciousness occurs . It is always accompanied by movement disorders in the form of convulsions.
Epilepsy, the signs of which can be expressed to varying degrees, is manifested by complete confusion of consciousness or its narrowing, some stunning. Seizures can also be generalized (general) or automated, when some muscle groups move uncontrollably.
Both acquired and congenital epilepsy are found. The causes of this pathology can be very different. It is known that with this disease the brain has an increased ability to cause seizures. Acquired epilepsy can begin after infection, trauma and other negative factors.
Epilepsy is not uncommon, the reasons for which are heredity, when the disease was established more than once in previous generations of relatives.
To the terrible and irreversible consequences for a baby who has not yet been born, the drunkenness of his father and mother leads. Indeed, alcoholic epilepsy is often encountered , the reasons for which lie in the intoxication of parents at the time of conception.
Manifestations of the disease are very diverse. Diagnosis of epilepsy is established on the basis of patient complaints and monitoring. The most typical manifestation is loss of consciousness to patients, accompanied by a fall and first stretching, tension of the body, and then repeated cramps. In half of the patients, before muscle contraction, a mental disorder lasts several seconds and is called an aura. The aura manifests itself in different ways: like fever, chest pressure, chills, a breeze, dizziness, goosebumps, tachycardia, hallucinations (auditory, olfactory and visual), automatic actions performed by a person (scratching, walking on the spot, sorting out things, lying nearby).
Tonic cramp (stretching the body, tension) lasts half a minute. It reduces limbs, while the head and torso are bent, the jaw clenches, the tongue often bites, breathing stops, and the face turns blue-black (therefore, the people called this disease "black sickness"). At the same time, loss of consciousness occurs , and the person falls. Following this seizure, clonic ones immediately begin, lasting up to two minutes. During them, the body twitches rhythmically, the patient can beat his elbows and his head on the floor, foam flows from the mouth, often with blood due to a bitten tongue. Urine and feces may be released involuntarily. It takes some time to recover consciousness after seizures.
Sometimes the patient enters into a trance state in which he performs the usual actions, but does not control them at all and then cannot remember what he did and where he was. A variety of trance is somnambulism (however, not always, walking in a dream also occurs of non-epileptic origin).
In especially severe cases, consciousness is clouded by an influx of hallucinations, a person is delirious, the so-called "epileptic twilight" sets in. In this case, the patient continues to move and is capable of aggressive acts. Or, a state of dysphoria can occur - a mood disorder in which a person is either depressed, picky, behaving uneasily, or, conversely, too lively and cheerful. Both cases replace the seizure, help discharge the accumulated stress.
The arsenal of modern medicine has enough funds to stop seizures completely or at least make them more rare.
Epilepsy, the causes of which lie in the distant past, is more difficult to treat. In addition, the fewer reasons are required to provoke a disease, the more difficult it is to treat. And, accordingly, the later the disease began, the less often it appears, the easier its course and the less likely it will appear in the next generation.