What Causes Epilepsy?
There is a fine balance in the brain between factors that begin electrical activity and factors that restrict it, and there are also systems that limit the spread of electrical activity. During a seizure, these limits break down, and abnormal electrical discharges can occur and spread to whole groups of neighboring cells at once. This linkage of electrical discharges creates a "storm" of electrical activity in the brain. This is a seizure. When a person has had at least two of these seizures, that's called epilepsy
How does epilepsy begin?
The reasons why epilepsy begins are different for people of different ages. But what's true for every age is that the cause is unknown for about half of everyone with epilepsy.
Children may be born with a defect in the structure of their brain, or they may suffer a head injury or infection that causes their epilepsy. Severe head injury is the most common known cause in young adults. In middle age, strokes, tumors, and injuries are more frequent. In people over 65, stroke is the most common known cause, followed by degenerative conditions such as Alzheimer's disease
Why does it sometimes take years before someone with a brain injury experiences a seizure?
Often seizures do not begin immediately after a person has an injury to the brain. Instead, a seizure may happen many months later. We do not have a good explanation for this common observation, but scientists are actively researching this subject.
What Are the Risk Factors?
Risk factors for epilepsy include:
- Babies who are small for their gestational age
- Babies who have seizures in the first month of life
- Babies who are born with abnormal brain structures
- Bleeding into the brain
- Abnormal blood vessels in the brain
- Serious brain injury or lack of oxygen to the brain
- Brain tumors
- Infections of the brain: abscess, meningitis, or encephalitis
- Stroke resulting from blockage of arteries
- Cerebral palsy
- Mental handicap
- Seizures occurring within days after head injury ("early posttraumatic seizures")
- Family history of epilepsy or fever-related seizures
- Alzheimer's disease (late in the illness)
- Fever-related (febrile) seizures that are unusually long
- Use of illegal drugs such as cocaine
Mild head injuries, such as a concussion with just a very brief loss of consciousness, do not cause epilepsy.
I don't think any of those risk factors apply to me!
Although the disorders and injuries on these lists help to explain many cases of epilepsy, more people with epilepsy don't have any of these factors apparent in their medical history. Often we just don't know how epilepsy gets started.
Even though you may not know the cause of your epilepsy, you can help yourself by looking for factors (often called "triggers") that seem to make your seizures more frequent or more severe and then avoid them altogether or atleast reduce their effects.
Seizure-Provoking Factors
- Missed medication
- Lack of sleep
- Illness(both with and without fever)
- Severe psychological stress
- Heavy alcohol use
- Use of cocaine and other recreational drugs such as Ecstasy
- Over-the-counter or prescription medications or supplements that decrease the effectiveness of seizure medicines
- Nutritional deficiencies: vitamins and minerals
- The menstrual cycle
Is Epilepsy Inherited?
It may seem obvious that heredity (genetics) plays an important role in many cases of epilepsy in very young children, but it can be a factor for people of any age. For instance, not everyone who has a serious head injury (a clear cause of seizures) will develop epilepsy. Those who do develop epilepsy are more likely to have a history of seizures in their family. This family history suggests that it is easier for them to develop epilepsy than for others with no genetic predisposition.
Epilepsy in which the seizures begin from both sides of the brain at the same time is called primary generalized epilepsy. Primary generalized epilepsy is more likely to involve genetic factors than partial epilepsy, in which the seizures arise from a limited area of the brain.
How does epilepsy begin?
The reasons why epilepsy begins are different for people of different ages. But what's true for every age is that the cause is unknown for about half of everyone with epilepsy.
Children may be born with a defect in the structure of their brain, or they may suffer a head injury or infection that causes their epilepsy. Severe head injury is the most common known cause in young adults. In middle age, strokes, tumors, and injuries are more frequent. In people over 65, stroke is the most common known cause, followed by degenerative conditions such as Alzheimer's diseas