A seizure, formally known as an epileptic seizure, is a period of symptoms due to abnormally excessive or synchronous neuronal activity in the brain.Outward effects vary from uncontrolled shaking movements involving much of the body with loss of consciousness (tonic-clonic seizure), to shaking movements involving only part of the body with variable levels of consciousness (focal seizure), to a subtle momentary loss of awareness (absence seizure).Most of the time these episodes last less than 2 minutes and it takes some time to return to normal.Loss of bladder control may occur.Seizures may be provoked and unprovoked.Provoked
seizures are due to a temporary event such as low blood sugar, alcohol withdrawal, low blood sodium, fever,
brain infection, or concussion.[3][5] Unprovoked
seizures occur without a known or fixable cause such that ongoing
seizures are likely. Unprovoked
seizures may be triggered by
stress or sleep deprivation .Diseases of the brain, where there has been at least one
seizure and a long term risk of further seizures, are collectively known as epilepsy. Conditions that look like epileptic
seizures but are not include: fainting, nonepileptic psychogenic event and tremor. A
seizure that lasts for more than a brief period is a medical emergency.[9] Any
seizure lasting longer than 5 minutes should be treated as status epilepticus.A first
seizure generally does not require long-term treatment with anti-seizure medications unless a specific problem is found on electroencephalogram (EEG) or
brain imaging.[6] Typically it is safe to complete the work-up following a single
seizure as an outpatient. In many, with what appears to be a first seizure, other minor
seizures have previously occurred.Up to 10% of people have at least one epileptic seizure. Provoked
seizures occur in about 3.5 per 10,000 people a year while unprovoked
seizures occur in about 4.2 per 10,000 people a year.[4] After one seizure, the chance of experiencing a second is about 50%.[11]
Epilepsy affects about 1% of the population at any given time with about 4% of the population affected at some point in time. Nearly 80% of those with
epilepsy live in developing countries. Many places require people to stop driving until they have not had a
seizure for a specific period
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