Living well with epilepsy
Unless you or a loved one has received an epilepsy diagnosis, you might know little about the condition. But one in 26 people will develop epilepsy over their lifetime, according to the Epilepsy Foundation. And about one in 100 people has experienced a single unprovoked seizure or received an epilepsy diagnosis.
‘The best thing you can do for your epilepsy is work with an epileptologist to get your symptoms under control.’
Rajinder Singh, DO
Kettering Brain and Spine neurologist
Not just seizures
Epilepsy ranks fourth on the list of most common neurological conditions. But many people don’t realize that seizures causing loss of consciousness are not the only symptom of epilepsy. “Many patients will experience something called aura,” explains Rajinder Singh, DO, neurologist for Kettering Brain & Spine.
Aura can be a prelude to seizures. Aura is characterized by unusual sensations, such as a strange feeling of the stomach rising, nausea, fear, hallucinations, a ringing in the ears or sensory changes. Sometimes what patients think is an aura may actually be a focal seizure with intact cognition, without stereotypical convulsions.
Life after diagnosis
After an epilepsy diagnosis, many patients wonder
how life will change. Can they still drive a car? Play sports? Go for a run? “The best thing you can do for your epilepsy is work with an epileptologist to get your symptoms under control,” says Dr. Singh.
Many states require proof that a person has been seizure-free for a specific amount of time before they will issue a driver’s license. By seeking treatment from an epileptologist, people can reach this symptom-free length of time and experience significant improvement in their quality of life.
Treatment options
The first line of treatment for epilepsy is typically medication. “However, medication works only about 60% of the time,” Dr. Singh says.
“The other 40% of patients need to work with an epilepsy center to find other treatment options, such as epilepsy surgery, vagal nerve stimulation or deep brain stimulation.”
Dr. Singh explains that if a patient is still having seizures after trying two appropriately chosen medications, the chance of success with a third option is less than 5%. At Kettering Health, patients who do not respond to medication may benefit from minimally invasive surgery to precisely identify and target the seizures’ origin.
How you can help
If you witness someone experiencing a seizure, Dr. Singh says to “remain calm, do not put anything in the person’s mouth, and remove any sharp objects nearby.”
If the person having the seizure is someone you know, Dr. Singh says that the best thing you can do is take a cell phone video of the seizure. “That way, you can share the footage with the epileptologist for an assessment,” he explains. If the person is a stranger, call 911 to seek emergency medical attention.