FAQ: What You Should Know About Seizures

Around 1 in 20 people will have a seizure in their lifetime. What is a seizure? Are there different kinds? Can they be treated? Priyanka Omprakash Yadav, MD, a board-certified neurologist with a special interest in epilepsy, answers these questions and more in this FAQ.

What is a seizure? What causes a seizure?

“A seizure is a sudden, involuntary, temporary burst of electrical activity in the brain. Seizures happen when there is a sudden interruption in the way the brain normally works. In between seizures, the brain functions normally.”

What are the symptoms of a seizure?

“Seizures may cause jerking or twitching muscles, problems with speech, staring off into the distance, and sometimes bladder and bowel incontinence.”

What are the different types of seizures?

“There are two main types of seizures. The first type causes muscle twitching and jerking in your whole body – these are called grand-mal or generalized seizures. The second type causes jerking in only parts of your body – like your arm, legs, or face – or causes you to stare off into the distance, among other symptoms. These are called petit-mal or focal seizures.”

“There are over 40 different types of seizure. What seizures look like can vary. For example, someone may go ‘blank’ for a couple of seconds, they may wander around and be quite confused, or they may fall to the ground and shake. Not all seizures involve shaking.”

How common are seizures?

“About 1 in 20 people will have a one-off epileptic seizure at some point in their life, and 1 in 26 people will develop epilepsy in their lifetime.”

What is the prognosis for someone diagnosed with a seizure disorder, like epilepsy?

“With proper treatment, about 70% of people diagnosed with epilepsy can become seizure free within a few years.”

What should I do if I see someone having a seizure?

“When you see someone having a seizure:

• Ease the person to the floor.
• Turn the person gently onto one side. This will help the person breathe.
• Clear the area around the person of anything hard or sharp. This can prevent injury.
• Put something soft and flat, like a folded jacket, under his or her head.
• Remove eyeglasses.
• Loosen ties or anything around the neck that may make it hard to breathe.
• Time the seizure. If the seizure lasts longer than 5 minutes, call 911.”

“There are also important things to not do:

• Do not hold the person down or try to stop his or her movements.
• Do not put anything in the person’s mouth. This can injure their teeth or their jaw. A person having a seizure cannot swallow his or her tongue.
• Do not try to give mouth-to-mouth breaths (like CPR). People usually start breathing again on their own after a seizure.” 

What treatments are available for seizures?

“We have come a long way in the treatment of seizures. There are multiple medications to prevent seizures from recurring and to stop a seizure when one is happening. If medications are not working, we have surgeries, like vagal nerve stimulator surgery, and other surgeries as well. Lastly, there are also various diets, like the ketogenic diet, that can help with seizure.”

Treatment for Seizures at Cone Health

The Epilepsy Monitoring Unit at Moses Cone Hospital utilizes state-of- the-art technology to evaluate, diagnose and treat seizures in all adult patients. To schedule an appointment for care related to seizures or epilepsy, please call 336-832-2820.