Epilepsy Essay -- Neurology Neurological Disorders Essays

Epilepsy Epilepsy is a very common neurological disorder. Some reports estimate that five in one-thousand people suffer from this problem. Throughout history, people with epilepsy have been shunned or considered inferior. Even today, ignorance leads many people to treat the epileptic as "abnormal" or "retarded". Although the etiology of epilepsy is still not fully understood, it is quite treatable due to advances in modern medicine. Epilepsy is characterized by uncontrolled excessive activity of either a part of, or all of the central nervous system. A person who is predisposed to epilepsy has attacks when the basal level of excitability of the nervous system rises above a certain critical threshold. As long as the degree of excitability is held below this threshold, no attack occurs. Basically, epilepsy can be classified into three major types: grand mal, petit mal, and focal or partial epilepsy. Grand mal epilepsy is characterized by extreme neuronal discharges in all areas of the brain: in the cortex, in the deeper parts of the cerebrum, and even in the brain stem and thalamus. Also, discharges into the spinal cord cause generalized tonic convulsions of the entire body, followed toward the end of the attack by alternating tonic and then spasmodic muscular contractions called tonic-clonic convulsions. Often the person bites or "swallows" the tongue and usually has difficulty in breathing, sometimes to the extent of developing cyanosis. Also, signals to the viscera frequently cause urination and defecation. The grand mal seizures lasts from a few seconds to as long as three to four minutes and is characterized by post-seizure depression of the entire nervous system; the person remains in stupor for one to many minute... ...l. 16: S31-S38. Bleck, T. and H. Klawans. (1990) Convulsive Disorders: Mechanism of Epilepsy and Anticonvulsant Action. Clinical Neuropharmacology 13(2):121-128. Cohen, P. G. (1984) The Metabolic Basis for the Genesis of Seizures: The Role of the Potassium-Ammonia Axis. Medical Hypothesis, 13:199-204. Craig, C. R. (1984) Evidence for a role of neurotransmitters in the mechanism of topical convulsant models. Federal Proceedings, 43(10):2525-2528. Fisher, R. S. (1989) Animal models of the epilepsies. Brain Research Review, 14:245-278. Guyton, Arthur C. Textbook of Medical Physiology, 8th Ed. ,Saunders Co. (1991) p.663-665. W.B. Schmidt, D., C. Cornaggia, and W. Loscher. (1984) Comparative Studies of the GABA System in Neurosurgical Brain Specimens of Epileptic and Non-epileptic Patients. Neurotransmitters, Seizures, and Epilepsy II, p.275-283.