Symptoms of Epilepsy

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Repeated brain seizures are the main symptom of epilepsy. There are several different types of seizure and it is possible for the same person to have more than one type of seizure at different times.

The types of seizure are:

Partial seizure: where one part of your brain is affected. The exact symptoms depend on which part of the brain is affected, but often you wonâ€™t lose consciousness; and

Generalised seizures: where all of your brain is affected. This type of seizure will make you lose consciousness.

Partial seizures:

There are two broad types of partial seizures, simple and complex.

Simple partial seizure: Only a small part of the brain is affected and the symptoms will depend on which part of the brain it is. You may have muscle jerks or pins and needles in one arm or leg. You wonâ€™t lose consciousness.

Complex partial seizure: You do not lose consciousness completely but you may not be fully aware of what is happening around you. Afterwards you may only remember a little of what happened. You might act in a confused way, mumble or seem preoccupied to other people. Partial seizures can sometimes come before a generalised seizure â€“ the partial seizure may warn that a generalised seizure is about to happen.

Generalised seizures:

These occur if the abnormal electrical activity affects all or most of the brain. The symptoms tend to affect much of the body. The main types of generalised seizures are:

Tonic-clonic: (also called convulsive seizure or â€˜grand malâ€™). This is what many people might think of as a â€˜typicalâ€™ epileptic seizure. You may have some warning symptoms before a seizure (called an â€˜auraâ€™), eg strange movements, emotions or sensations (which are often related to smell and taste).

However, for many people, seizures happen without warning. Your muscles tighten up and you become stiff. You lose consciousness, and may injure yourself by falling over. The muscles in your jaw tighten and you may bite your tongue. Your skin (lips, ear lobes and tongue) may turn blue. Sometimes the muscles in your bladder also tighten which can cause urine or faecal leakage (you wet or soil yourself).

After this comes a shaking (clonic) phase. Your muscles tense and relax causing convulsions (shaking). This lasts between a few seconds and a few minutes. You then gradually regain consciousness. It may take some time to fully recover from the seizure, even when the main symptoms have disappeared. You might feel tired and confused and may need to rest or sleep.

Tonic: There is a brief loss of consciousness and you usually fall to the ground. Recovery is quicker than with a tonic-clonic seizure.

Atonic (meaning not-tonic): There is a brief loss of consciousness and you become limp and fall to the ground. Recovery is usually quicker than with a tonic-clonic seizure.

Myoclonic: the muscles in one part of your body (usually an arm or leg) twitch or jerk suddenly, usually without loss of consciousness or awareness of what is happening. This may happen at the same time as another type of seizure.

Absence seizure: (also known as â€˜petit malâ€™): where you lose awareness for a short time. This occurs mainly in children. The child may seem to be staring blankly into space. There are no other obvious symptoms. The periods of absence are usually short (seconds rather than minutes).