Medical Conditions Related to Brain Injury: Seizures
The Brain's Electrical Activity and Seizures
Last Updated:
Electrical impulses in the brain are a way brain cells communicate and work together. When the brain electrical activity is abnormal, the result can be a seizure. Some seizures last just a few seconds and are barely noticed (absence or petit mal seizures) and obvious seizures (grand mal) where the person loses consciousness, the whole body stiffens, then jerks and twitches uncontrollably.
Seizures are classified into generalized and partial seizures. Generalized seizures involve the entire brain. Partial seizures involve one area of the brain. What happens during a partial seizure depends upon what part of the brain is affected. Facial movements, disturbances of vision, hearing or smell, stomach discomfort or jerking of a limb indicate which area is involved. Partial seizures may become generalized seizures when the abnormal electrical activity in the brain spreads to involve the whole brain.
Epilepsy is when a person has more than one occurrence of seizures.
It is not uncommon for someone who has just had a brain injury (BI) to have one or more seizures. These are not always an indicator of the severity of the injury. There are over thirty different types of seizures with multiple causes to account for them. Seizures that occur during or soon after injury are typically the brain’s response to acute injury and do not necessarily mean the person is going to have long term epilepsy.
However, if seizures continue two weeks post injury, or begin around that time, the risk for continued seizure activity increases. Other factors that put a person with brain injury at higher risk for long term problems with seizures are a penetrating head injury or a penetrating skull fracture.
A person with brain injury has a greater risk of seizure over his/her lifetime than someone who has never had a head injury. There is also a higher incidence of seizures in children than adults though when stressed by any trauma or illness; children as a whole seizure more often than the adult population. One explanation for this may the child’s developing brain. The child’s brain has an immature myelin sheath that helps conduct the brain’s electrical impulses.
Every person has a seizure threshold—a point at which the brain short circuits. With a brain injury, that threshold is significantly lowered. Fatigue, stress, alcohol, certain drugs, failure to take prescribed anticonvulsant medications as well as drug interactions are factors that increase the probability of seizure in any person prone to seizure activity, including a person with brain injury. But today, thanks to excellent medication and awareness of lifestyle choices that impact brain activity, most people are able to control their seizures and live active, productive lives.
www.efa.org - Epilepsy Foundation site features definitions, characteristics of types of seizures as well as current research, legislation and resources relating to epilepsy.
www.epilepsyga.org - Epilepsy Foundation of Georgia offers general information on seizures and local resources for support groups, etc.
www.aan.com - Professional site of the American Academy of Neurology
Dr. Weissman is the current Medical Director of Day Rehabilitation and Rehabilitation Services of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta at Egleston. She serves on the Board of Directors of the Brain Injury Resource Foundation. In addition, she is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Neurology at Emory University School of Medicine and a committee member of the American Society for Neurorehabilitation.