Epilepsy

KEY WORDS
Seizures-napadi
Triggered-aktivira
Spontaneously-spontano
Susceptible-osetljiv
Precipitant-prenagljen
excitation-uzbudjenost
encode-sifrirati
xpirience-iskustvo
1
ABSTRACT

Epilepsy is a common and diverse set of chronic neurogical disorders characterized by seizures. Epileptic seizures result from abnormal, excessive or hypersynchronous neuronal activty in the brain. The diagnosis of epilepsy usually requires that the seizures occur spontaneously. Nevertheless, certain epilepsy syndromes require particular precipitants or triggers for seizures to occur. These are termed reflex epilepsy. For example, patients with primary reading epilepsy have seizures triggered by reading. Photosensitive epilepsy can be limited to seizures triggered by flashing lights. Mutations in several genes have been linked to several types of epilepsy. Some genes that code for protein sub units of voltage-gated and ligand-gatedion channels have been associated with forms of generalized epilepsy and infantile seizure syndromes. The mainstay of treatment of epilepsy is anticonvulsant medications. Often, anticonvulsant medication treatment will be lifelong and can have major effects on quality of life. The choice among anticonvulsants and their effectiveness differs by epilepsy syndrome. Mechanisms, effectiveness for particular epilepsy syndromes, and side-effects differ among the individual anticonvulsant medications. Some general findings about the use of anticonvulsants are outlined below.