Many times if you suffer from a blow to the head from a car accident, there are additional conditions that may occur after your head injury occurs. Conditions like post-concussion syndrome or amnesia are examples of this, but another disorder, epilepsy, can be just as difficult to live with as the other two.After any kind of blow to the head, you should always get checked out by a doctor to make sure you dont have a concussion, a contusion or a hematoma. Further tests can conclude whether or not you may not have epilepsy which can lead to different types of seizures.
What Is Epilepsy?
Epilepsy refers to a disorder that results in the generation of electrical signals inside the brain. These signals cause recurring seizures. There are different kinds of seizures, and the symptoms range from blank stares for a few seconds to full-fledged convulsions. About one in 100 people in the United States have unprovoked seizures, but at least two unprovoked seizures are required for any kind of epilepsy diagnosis.Even small seizures require some kind of treatment because of their danger during things such as driving. Treatment can be medications or surgery, although if your child has epilepsy caused by a traumatic brain injury, they may outgrow it as they get older.What Is A Seizure?
Seizures are the main symptoms of epilepsy because epilepsy is caused by abnormal activity in brain cells. Seizures can produce any one of the following things:- Complete loss of consciousness
- Temporary confusion
- A staring spell
- Uncontrollable jerking motions in arms and legs
- Simple partial No loss of consciousness, but they can alter emotions or change the way your senses interpret things. There may also be involuntary jerking of body parts and/or sensory symptoms like tingling or vertigo.
- Complex partial These seizures do alter consciousness causing you to lose your awareness for a while. Complex partial seizures usually result in staring and accidental movements like hand rubbing, chewing or twitching.
- Absence seizures staring, subtle bodily movement and brief losses in consciousness
- Myoclonic seizures usually are sudden jerks or twitches in arms/legs
- Atonic seizures cause loss in normal muscle tone causing you to collapse or fall down (hence the term drop attack)
- Tonic-clonic seizures (also called grand mal seizures) the most powerful of all types of seizures which cause a loss of consciousness as well as body stiffening and shaking with a loss of bladder control.