Types of Seizures – Signs and Symptoms

These are uncontrolled electrical activities that take place in the brain and are characterized by physical convulsions, minor physical signs, thought disturbances or a combination of all these symptoms. The patient may have altered consciousness. Recurrent seizures include repetitive muscle twitching which are called convulsions.

Causes – This disease can be caused by

  1. Head injury- and accidental hit on the head can cause this disease. This is one of the most common causes of children suffering from seizures.
  2. Brain tumors- seizure could also be symptom of brain tumors.
  3. Lead poisoning – lead poisoning over a period of time can lead to cause seizures.
  4. Fevers- High fever, for a long period of time can cause seizure

Seizures can affect a person’s consciousness, lasts for a few minutes and can have a sudden onset. Many a times, the patient may have a history of seizures in the family. The clinical signs and symptoms of seizures can be divided into

  • Motor signs
  • Sensory symptoms
  • Autonomic signs and symptoms

Motor signs -

  1. The person may suffer from alternating contraction and relaxation of all the muscles in the body
  2. There is involuntary rotation of the eye and turning of the head to the same side.
  3. The limbs are asymmetrically postured and they tend to twist at awkward angle.
  4. There is temporary loss of speech with the tongue dropping out from the mouth.

Sensory symptoms

  1. During seizure, a person may experience aura in which they may see lights or colors, illusions and hallucinations.
  2. The person tends to hear a different noises such as humming, buzzing, grating, or hissing noises.
  3. During this state, he may experience bad odors and tastes.
  4. There may be dizziness and the person may feel light headed.

Autonomic signs and symptoms

  1. The person may experience nausea followed by vomiting
  2. Incontinence- The person passes urine involuntarily
  3. There is flushing of the face and skin
  4. There are loud, audible noises from the intestines.
  5. There are goose bumps all over the body.
  6. The pupils of the eye dilate
  7. Profuse sweating, all over the body
  8. The heart beat accelerates

Psychic symptoms

  1. The person is always seems to be lost in thoughts, perpetually dreaming away.
  2. He/She looses all attachments to everyone around him.
  3. They tend to forget things. From day to day happenings, to important events in their life. Some even experience a sense of deja-vu.
  4. He looses the sense of time and space,
  5. The emotions are extreme and uncalled for with extreme feelings like fear, displeasure, depression, ecstasy, ill temper and displeasure.

These signs and symptoms vary based on the age of the patient, the cause of seizure, duration of the seizure etc. The two main categories of seizures include

  • Partial seizure
    1. Simple partial seizure
    2. Complex partial seizure
  • Generalized seizure
    1. Absence seizure/ petit mal
    2. Myoclonic seizures
    3. Atonic seizures
    4. Tonic-Clonic seizures

Partial Seizures- This is the most common type of a seizure that people experience during epileptic attacks. It occurs due to electrical disturbances that begin in the focal or discrete area of the brain such as the cerebral hemisphere. This is divided into

  1. Simple partial seizure – The person is in a conscious state while experiencing this seizure, but some may have involuntary loss of movement and speech. There are also some patients who can talk and recollect all that happened once the attack is over.
    • Motor phase – During this phase, once side of the body is affected. The upper limbs twist at odd angles, there is jerking of fingers, hand and arm. The head of the patient draws towards the shoulder and the leg draws up. All this may happen in a conscious state where the patient may be aware of the surroundings and the physical changes that are occurring, but cannot voluntarily control these movements. As these symptoms shift from one part of the body to another, the person may experience “epileptic march” called as Jacksonian epilepsy.
    • Sensory phase – All the five senses may go haywire. The person may sense breeze on the skin, hear unusual hissing, grinding, buzzing or ringing noises or may have a severely unpleasant taste in their mouth and may experience highly unpleasant smell. They also feel as if the surroundings are spinning and things seem to be floating in air. Emotionally also the person may have sudden, strong emotions, as if the patient is loosing something, as if something terrible is about to occur. Some may experience extreme cases such as rage or ecstasy.

In extreme cases of partial seizure, the person may also get paralyzed or may experience vertigo (fear of height).

  1. Complex partial seizure – This type of seizure can take place in any lobe of the brain, but they mostly take place in the two temporal lobes. During this type of seizure, the consciousness of the person is altered. The patient is unable to communicate with others while the seizure is taking place and is unable to remember the course of events that took place during the attack. Some patients appear normal externally but for the eyes which become glass like and fixed and some patient appear unconscious, with theirs eyes rolled out. They may be able to speak, but the words may be incoherent and slurred. This is followed by twitching of the jaw which seems like the patient is chewing. He may also pick at his clothes, the beddings and may show a series of unorganized movements. Some may also throw their hands out in the air, do cycling movements with their legs, start running or scream out loudly. All these symptoms get exhibited in an automatic repetitive behavior. They do not recognize familiar surroundings and go through a sense of déjà vu where unfamiliar surroundings seem familiar. All these symptoms are said to be caused due to abnormal discharges in the brain.

Generalized seizure – These affect a larger part of the brain, usually both the sides. During this type of a seizure, the patient become unconscious and may not recollect the happenings of the attack.

  1. Absence seizure/ petit mal - These seizures begin and end abruptly, with a short duration of just a few seconds, without any warning or an after effect. This is more dominant in children and is rare to occur in an adult, post the age of 20. When this occurs, the child has a glass like expression for a few seconds, abruptly stops what he or she is doing and stares ahead. But the duration may be so short that the child may not even realize what has happened or remember anything about it. Though this may not be a cause of worry, it can hinder a child’s learning. Some may have twitching of the eyelids and jaws, but the muscle tone is lost in all cases. The frequency of their occurrence can go up to 100 times in a day.
  2. Myoclonic seizures – this involves both the sides of the brain and occurs due to changes in the nervous system. These seizures are brief and rapid contraction of muscles occurring bilaterally (on the both the sides of the body). Sometimes, they may be restricted to one side and may affect the limbs.
  3. Atonic seizures – this is characterized by sudden and complete loss of muscle tone. During this seizure, the person may suddenly fall from the posture that he may be holding. This can lead to injury, especially if the person standing, or sitting at an elevation, falls down with force. This seizure shows the least reaction to drug therapy. Due to this, patients are advised to wear specially designed helmets to protect their head and face during a fall.
  4. Tonic-Clonic seizures – These are the most common type of seizures. In the tonic phase, the person experiences stiffening of the limbs, difficulty in breathing and cyanosis (bluish discoloration) of the lips, nail beds and face. In the clonic phase, they have jerking of the limbs and face and irregular breathing which can last for a few minutes. There are cases where the person may experience either tonic or clonic phase while some may experience both. The person may involuntarily pass urine, bite in the tongue or the inner layers of the cheek and may have labored, loud breathing.

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