Epilepsy is such a complex variety of disorders that there is no such thing as a typical case. The causes of epilepsy are largely unknown, although doctors continue to speculate about a wide range of factors. Medication is the preferred treatment for epilepsy yet researchers admit that they don't know precisely how some of the drugs operate. One promising approach to the treatment of epilepsy, however, is the management of the disease through the intervention of the patient and his or her family.
Epilepsy is a condition in which a person experiences seizures. These seizures can result from the excessive discharge of energy by nerve cells in the brain. Some researchers compare the seizures to an engine misfiring: "The seizures in epilepsy are sudden, episodic, and recurrent." Seizures can be of two types: partial and generalized. Partial seizures affect only one part of the brain. Generalized seizures affect the entire brain. Because each brain is slightly different in terms of its chemical makeup, seizures manifest themselves in a wide variety of ways.
Seizures range from peculiar sensations to a total lapse of consciousness. In terms of outward appearance, the patient may experience a slight twitching of facial features or an appearance of disorientation. These are the mild cases. Mild cases characterized by only seconds-long lapses in consciousness are known as petit mal. In severe cases, the patient will fall to the floor, become stiff, then jerk the body violently. These cases are known as tonic-clonic or grand mal. Grand mals occur in about a third of epileptic patients. A person may have several types of seizures, depending on which part of the brain is affected by a particular abnormal discharge: "A particular patient may have one or many different types of attack, though it is usual for one patient to have only one kind."
Epilepsy is a common neurological disorder; an estimated 2.5 million Amer...