Epilepsy Myths: Do’s and Don’ts?

Today, most people who do not have a sufficient amount of medical knowledge about epilepsy have a negative attitude towards it. This is due to the many baseless statements that persistently circulate in society and complicate the life of those patients who suffer from pathology. It is mistakenly believed that seizures can lead to severe brain damage, which negatively affects the psyche and makes a person mentally retarded. There are statements about the high toxicity and danger of drugs used for epilepsy. It is also common to hear that women with epilepsy are prohibited from pregnancy and childbirth. But are those who make such judgments so right?

Features of epilepsy

This disease is found everywhere, it is detected in all countries of the world, regardless of financial situation and social status. Epilepsy is a chronic disorder of brain activity, in which pathological foci of arousal arise, provoking seizures or non-convulsive seizures. Their manifestations can be different, depending on the form of pathology:

• Brief convulsions of an involuntary nature in certain parts of the body (partial seizures).
• Generalized seizures with loss of consciousness on the background of tonic or clonic seizures.
• Various equivalents of seizures (freezing, hanging, etc.).

Against the background of generalized seizures, people lose consciousness, not remembering the events that occur during the seizure, there may be a loss of control over the rectum or bladder. This frightening clinical picture of seizures gives rise to many misconceptions and myths associated with epilepsy. According to doctors, up to 10% of the population have experienced such seizures at least once in their lives, but epilepsy is diagnosed only in the presence of repeated seizures of the same type.

Epilepsy and the psyche of people

It is wrong to think that epilepsy is a mental pathology. A long course of pathology without proper treatment and control can lead to various negative phenomena on the part of the psyche, but if the disease is taken under the control of a neurologist, a person is capable of a full life without any restrictions. Experts say that epilepsy develops due to the pathological work of neurons in the cerebral cortex, which form a focus of excitation and provoke convulsions. The psyche does not suffer during this process if the disease is controlled and treated. There are many forms of this disease, some of them have a hereditary predisposition and idiopathic (unknown) causes of occurrence, others are formed after injuries, infections of the brain tissue.

People do not suffer psyche between attacks, do not develop dementia or other psychiatric diagnoses. Many genius people had epilepsy, which did not prevent them from becoming famous and leaving their mark on history and art. Naturally, the threat of seizures limits some types of activity in such people, but in the periods between seizures they are fully functional, adequate and do not show decreases in intelligence. Their psyche can suffer only with an uncontrolled course of pathology (without drugs, help and with complications), or with initial brain damage, where epilepsy is just a symptom.  

A seizure is always a bite of the tongue and foam at the mouth.

For many, epileptic seizures are invariably loss of consciousness with falls and convulsions, foaming at the mouth and biting the tongue. But doctors know very well that seizures, both generalized and partial, are not the only manifestations of the disease. Often there are non-convulsive forms, in mild cases, a person may temporarily freeze or lose contact with the world: there is an attack, a change in brain activity is recorded, but there are no seizures . Naturally, if there are seizures, it is easiest to identify epilepsy – it is clearly visible, while non-convulsive seizures are more difficult to diagnose. Sometimes epilepsy manifests itself in general atypical: with attacks of pain in the abdomen, mood changes or an attack of panic, unconscious movements or actions that are repeated several times and have the same course, with the identification of a focus in the brain.  

A sick woman should forget about childbirth.

Many people believe that if a woman has epilepsy, she cannot become a mother, childbirth is prohibited. In reality, this is not true, since experts say that in 95% of cases, with adequate drug control of epilepsy, childbirth is quite acceptable, healthy babies are born. Pregnancy does not worsen the course of epilepsy, and the pathology itself does not affect how the birth will go. Moreover, some experts note the fact that pregnancy improves the course of epilepsy, the seizures are reduced or disappear. Naturally, you need constant monitoring of the expectant mother by obstetricians and neurologists, the selection of antiepileptic drugs so that they do not harm the mother and the fetus. Against the background of such observation that pregnancy and childbirth are quite favorable.

Taking medications for epilepsy is dangerous, they are toxic

You can often hear that those drugs that are applicable for epilepsy are “heavy” and very toxic, taking them is dangerous to the health of other organs and tissues. But this is not true. Yes, drugs for epilepsy are not trivial vitamins, they are anticonvulsants that help in the fight against seizures, which are much more dangerous for human health. Modern drugs, unlike previously used ones, are well tolerated, have a minimum of side effects with full control of the disease, do not give addiction and are selected gradually, starting with the minimum active dose. This makes epilepsy medications relatively safe, unless the patient decides to practice self-medication on the advice of the Internet or friends. Doctors, when choosing any medication, do it individually, taking into account many factors, and this neutralizes the potentially negative side effects of taking these drugs.