As someone with complex parital with and without secondary generalization, I have been arrested twice and treated brutally physically and mentally by the University police at my school. What I don't undestand is why more people of power don't know not to handcuff someone they know is having a seizure. The treatment by my caretakers is wonderful...
--- In epilepsy@yahoogroup
>
> wikipedia.org
> Treatment of EPILEPSY
>
> Epilepsy is usually treated with medication prescribed by a physician; primary caregivers, neurologists, and neurosurgeons all frequently care for people with epilepsy. In some cases the implantation of a stimulator of the vagus nerve, or a special diet can be helpful. Neurosurgical operations for epilepsy can be palliative, reducing the frequency or severity of seizures; or, in some patients, an operation can be curative.
>
> [edit] Responding to a seizure
>
> In most cases, the proper emergency response to a generalized tonic-clonic epileptic seizure is simply to prevent the patient from self-injury by moving him or her away from sharp edges, placing something soft beneath the head, and carefully rolling the person into the recovery position to avoid asphyxiation. In some cases the person may seem to start snoring loudly following a seizure, before coming to. This merely indicates that the person is beginning to breathe properly and does not mean he or she is suffocating. Should the person regurgitate, the material should be allowed to drip out the side of the person's mouth by itself. If a seizure lasts longer than 5 minutes, or if the seizures begin coming in 'waves' one after the other - then Emergency Medical Services should be contacted immediately. Prolonged seizures may develop into status epilepticus, a dangerous condition requiring hospitalization and emergency treatment.
>
> Objects should never be placed in a person's mouth by anybody - including paramedics - during a seizure as this could result in serious injury to either party. Despite common folklore, it is not possible for a person to swallow their own tongue during a seizure. However, it is possible that the person will bite their own tongue, especially if an object is placed in the mouth.
>
> With other types of seizures such as simple partial seizures and complex partial seizures where the person is not convulsing but may be hallucinating, disoriented, distressed, or unconscious, the person should be reassured, gently guided away from danger, and sometimes it may be necessary to protect the person from self-injury, but physical force should be used only as a last resort as this could distress the person even more. In complex partial seizures where the person is unconscious, attempts to rouse the person should not be made as the seizure must take its full course. After a seizure, the person may pass into a deep sleep or otherwise they will be disoriented and often unaware that they have just had a seizure, as amnesia is common with complex partial seizures. The person should remain observed until they have completely recovered, as with a tonic-clonic seizure.
>
> After a seizure, it is typical for a person to be exhausted and confused. (this is known as post-ictal state). Often the person is not immediately aware that they have just had a seizure. During this time one should stay with the person - reassuring and comforting them - until they appear to act as they normally would. Seldom during seizures do people lose bladder or bowel control. In some instances the person may vomit after coming to. People should not be allowed to wander about unsupervised until they have returned to their normal level of awareness. Many patients will sleep deeply for a few hours after a seizure - this is common for those having just experienced a more violent type of seizure such as a tonic-clonic. In about 50% of people with epilepsy, headaches may occur after a seizure. These headaches share many features with migraines, and respond to the same medications.
>
> It is helpful if those present at the time of a seizure make note of how long and how severe the seizure was. It is also helpful to note any mannerisms displayed during the seizure. For example, the individual may twist the body to the right or left, may blink, might mumble nonsense words, or might pull at clothing. Any observed behaviors, when relayed to a neurologist, may be of help in diagnosing the type of seizure which occurred.
>
> [edit] Pharmacologic treatment
> Main article: Anticonvulsant
>
> The mainstay of treatment of epilepsy is anticonvulsant medications. Often, anticonvulsant medication treatment will be lifelong and can have major effects on quality of life. The choice among anticonvulsants and their effectiveness differs by epilepsy syndrome. Mechanisms, effectiveness for particular epilepsy syndromes, and side effects, of course, differ among the individual anticonvulsant medications. Some general findings about the use of anticonvulsants are outlined below.
>
> History and Availability- The first anticonvulsant was bromide, suggested in 1857 by Charles Locock who used it to treat women with "hysterical epilepsy" (probably catamenial epilepsy). Potassium bromide was also noted to cause impotence in men. Authorities concluded that potassium bromide would dampen sexual excitement thought to cause the seizures. In fact, bromides were effective against epilepsy, and also caused impotence; it is now known that impotence is a side effect of bromide treatment, which is not related to its anti-epileptic effects. It also suffered from the way it affected behaviour, introducing the idea of the 'epileptic personality' which was actually a result of the medication. Phenobarbital was first used in 1912 for both its sedative and antiepileptic properties. By the 1930s, the development of animal models in epilepsy research lead to the development of phenytoin by Tracy Putnam and H. Houston Merritt, which had the distinct
> advantage of treating epileptic seizures with less sedation[29]
>
> Currently there are 20 medications approved by the Food and Drug Administration for the use of treatment of epileptic seizures in the US: carbamazepine (common US brand name Tegretol), clorazepate (Tranxene), clonazepam (Klonopin), ethosuximide (Zarontin), felbamate (Felbatol), fosphenytoin (Cerebyx), gabapentin (Neurontin), lacosamide (Vimpat), lamotrigine (Lamictal), levetiracetam (Keppra), oxcarbazepine (Trileptal), phenobarbital (Luminal), phenytoin (Dilantin), pregabalin (Lyrica), primidone (Mysoline), tiagabine (Gabitril), topiramate (Topamax), valproate semisodium (Depakote), valproic acid (Depakene), and zonisamide (Zonegran). Most of these appeared after 1990.
>
> Medications commonly available outside the US but still labelled as "investigational" within the US are clobazam (Frisium) and vigabatrin (Sabril). Medications currently under clinical trial under the supervision of the FDA include retigabine, brivaracetam, and seletracetam.
>
> Other drugs are commonly used to abort an active seizure or interrupt a seizure flurry; these include diazepam (Valium, Diastat) and lorazepam (Ativan). Drugs used only in the treatment of refractory status epilepticus include paraldehyde (Paral), midazolam (Versed), and pentobarbital (Nembutal).
>
> Some anticonvulsant medications do not have primary FDA-approved uses in epilepsy but are used in limited trials, remain in rare use in difficult cases, have limited "grandfather" status, are bound to particular severe epilepsies, or are under current investigation. These include acetazolamide (Diamox), progesterone, adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH, Acthar), various corticotropic steroid hormones (prednisone)
>
> Effectiveness - The definition of "effective" varies. FDA-approval usually requires that 50% of the patient treatment group had at least a 50% improvement in the rate of epileptic seizures. About 20% of patients with epilepsy continue to have breakthrough epileptic seizures despite best anticonvulsant treatment. [30][31].
>
> Safety and Side Effects - 88% of patients with epilepsy, in a European survey, reported at least one anticonvulsant related side effect. [32] Most side effects are mild and "dose-related" and can often be avoided or minimized by the use of the smallest effective amount. Some examples include mood changes, sleepiness, or unsteadiness in gait. Some anticonvulsant medications have "idiosyncratic" side-effects that can not be predicted by dose. Some examples include drug rashes, liver toxicity (hepatitis), or aplastic anemia. Safety includes the consideration of teratogenicity (the effects of medications on fetal development) when women with epilepsy become pregnant.
>
> Principles of Anticonvulsant Use and Management - The goal for individual patients is, of course, no seizures and no side effects, and the job of the physician is to aid the patient to find the best balance between the two during the prescribing of anticonvulsants. Most patients can achieve this balance best with monotherapy, the use of a single anticonvulsant medication. Some patients, however, require polypharmacy; the use of two or more anticonvulsants.
>
> Serum levels of AEDs can be checked to determine medication compliance, to assess the effects of new drug-drug interactions upon previous stable medication levels, or to help establish if particular symptoms such as instability or sleepiness can be considered a drug side-effect or are due to different causes. Children or impaired adults who may not be able to communicate side effects may benefit from routine screening of drug levels. Beyond baseline screening, however, trials of recurrent, routine blood or urine monitoring show no proven benefits and may lead to unnecessary medication adjustments in most older children and adults using routine anticonvulsants.
>
> If a person's epilepsy cannot be brought under control after adequate trials of two or three (experts vary here) different drugs, that person's epilepsy is generally said to be medically refractory. A study of patients with previously untreated epilepsy demonstrated that 47% achieved control of seizures with the use of their first single drug. 14% became seizure free during treatment with a second or third drug. An additional 3% became seizure-free with the use of two drugs simultaneously.
>
>
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
Change settings via the Web (Yahoo! ID required)
Change settings via email: Switch delivery to Daily Digest | Switch format to Traditional
Visit Your Group | Yahoo! Groups Terms of Use | Unsubscribe
No comments:
Post a Comment