What are the different types of epilepsy?
Seizures can be a brief interruption of brain activity (an absence seizure) or more intense and dramatic, including falling or abnormal muscles movements. (Click here to go to the Epilepsy Foundation of American Web site for a description of seizure types.) During a seizure, patient behavior depends on the area of the brain involved by abnormal electrical discharges in nerve cells. Different areas of the brain control different body activities. The altered brain activity results in either increased or decreased activity in the part of the body controlled by the affected brain cells.
Most often epilepsy is classified according to the type of seizures or fits. The commonest forms are tonic clonic seizures (grand mal) and complex partial seizures (temporal lobe). There are many other seizures types that can be seen in persons with epilepsy. Epilepsy can also be classified according to the possible cause for the fits. Epilepsy is best looked at as a symptom, the causes of which are variable and multifactorial. Any disease of the brain can cause epileptic fits of some type. Some types of epilepsies tend to be familial and occur at a particular age.
There are many forms of epilepsy. Epilepsy seizures are classified as focal, in which abnormal activity occurs in one hemisphere of the brain, or generalized, where such activity occurs throughout both hemispheres. Focal seizures can be simple partial seizures (without the loss of consciousness) or complex partial seizures where consciousness is impaired. Epilepsy syndromes are frequently described by their symptoms or by where in the brain they originate.
