What are the causes of epilepsy among seniors?
There can be several causes for epilepsy to develop in seniors: Stroke is the leading cause, responsible for about a third of epilepsy cases. Often, the stroke was small and didn’t cause other obvious symptoms. Sometimes, seizures may not occur until quite a while after the stroke—months or even a year or more. Alzheimer’s disease causes about 11 percent of seizures. Tumors in the brain, either cancerous or non-cancerous, cause about 5 percent of cases. Head injuries cause about 2 percent. Infections cause about 1 percent. For about half of all people—not just seniors, but people of all ages—the reason for the seizures is never discovered. What should you do if you think you or a loved one are having seizures? It’s important to see your doctor if you or a loved one are experiencing symptoms of a seizure. That’s the only way to find out exactly what’s going on—whether you are in fact having seizures, or whether another condition is causing your symptoms. If you are having seizures, your
