Epilepsy Treatments Options
Health

Epilepsy Treatments Options

According to data from the International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE), an estimated 1.2 percent of Americans and 65 million individuals worldwide have some from of active epilepsy, a condition marked by a number of recurring seizure disorders that result due to abnormal electrical impulses within the brain. While the onset of epilepsy can occur at any age, that majority of diagnosis occur prior to age 20 or after age 65, as patients in advanced age are more prone to tumors, strokes, and Alzheimer’s disease.

While many patients do have sudden and recurring seizures, not all diagnosed epileptics experience seizures. Risk for developing epilepsy increases with the following factors:

  • Family history: Children with epileptic parents are considered 5% at risk of developing epilepsy at some point.
  • Vascular diseases: including stroke, which may lead to brain damage and trigger recurring seizures.
  • Brain infections: including meningitis, may cause inflammation of the spinal cord and brain.
  • Head injury: including concussions and head injuries may increase epilepsy development.
  • Childhood seizures: may increase the risk of developing epilepsy later in life.
    Dementia: aging patients who experience mental function are prone to epilepsy.

Epilepsy due to any of the above stated reasons may be treated with the following options:

1. Ketogenic diet
The keto diet, or extremely high fat, low carb dietary plan, is often recommended by doctors and dieticians to help manage epileptic symptoms, particularly seizures. However, patients must be closely monitored on the ketogenic diet to prevent known side effects, like high cholesterol, kidney stones, and constipation.

2. Resective surgery
Surgery is often only recommended in cases where patients suffer from severe and life threatening seizures. However, resective surgery aims to extract a small areas of the brain located in the occipital lobe, parietal lobe, frontal lobe, or temporal lobe, which is responsible for triggering seizures.

3. Disconnective surgery
A second form of surgery for severe epilepsy, disconnective surgery aims to impede (or disconnect) nerve pathways that trigger seizure within the brain.

4. Nerve stimulation
Epileptics who don’t show improvement with medication may be given either vagus nerve stimulation or responsive neurostimulation. Both treatments implant small devices in the patient in order to monitor and impede brain activity that prompts seizures. With vagus nerve stimulation, the device is implanted in the chest to attach to the vagus nerve in the brain. While responsive neurostimulation inserts the neurostimulator beneath the scalp.

5. Epileptic medication
A vast majority of epileptic patients (roughly 70%) are prescribed anticonvulsant (or anti-seizure) type medications in order to calm any abnormal brain activity that triggers seizures. Doctors will typically begin with a low does and monitor the patient for a time before increasing or altering the dosage according to the patient’s gender, age, and current health.

latest articles