Epileptic Seizure - Signs and Symptoms

Signs and Symptoms

The signs and symptoms of seizures vary depending on the type. Seizures may cause involuntary changes in body movement or function, sensation, awareness, or behavior. Seizures are often associated with a sudden and involuntary contraction of a group of muscles and loss of consciousness. However, a seizure can also be as subtle as a fleeting numbness of a part of the body, a brief or long term loss of memory, visual changes, sensing/discharging of an unpleasant odor, a strange epigastric sensation, or a sensation of fear and total state of confusion. A seizure can last from a few seconds to status epilepticus, a continuous group of seizures that is often life-threatening without immediate intervention. Therefore seizures are typically classified as motor, sensory, autonomic, emotional or cognitive. After the active portion of a seizure, there is typically a period referred to as postictal before a normal level of consciousness returns.

In some cases, the full onset of a seizure event is preceded by some of the sensations described above, called vertiginous epilepsy. These sensations can serve as a warning to that a generalized tonic–clonic seizure is about to occur. These warning sensations are cumulatively called an aura and are due to a focal seizure.

Some patients are able to tell when a seizure is about to happen. Some symptoms experienced by the person before a seizure may include dizziness, lightheadedness, tightening of the chest, and some experience things in slow-motion just prior to the seizure. Symptoms experienced by a person during a seizure depend on where in the brain the disturbance in electrical activity occurs. Partial and frontal seizures and focal epileptic discharges tend to happen more during sleep than during wakefulness. In contrast, psychogenic nonepileptic seizures are rare between midnight and 6 a m. and never occur during sleep. Generalized epilepsy but not focal epilepsy is higher in the morning probably reflecting a diurnal variation in cortical excitability. A person having a tonic–clonic seizure may cry out, lose consciousness and fall to the ground, and convulse, often violently. A person having a complex partial seizure may appear confused or dazed and will not be able to respond to questions or direction. Some people have seizures that are not noticeable to others. Sometimes, the only clue that a person is having an absence seizure is rapid blinking, extreme confusion for a few seconds or sometimes into hours.