As of 2010, what used to be called grand mal epilepsy is now called generalized tonic-clonic seizure disorder. The term describes a pattern where an individual, for one of many reasons, first loses consciousness, then falls. The person next demonstrate a stiffening of the legs and arms, the tonic phase, and finally a jerking motion begins in the extremities and the face, the clonic phase. This usually ends in one to two minutes.
Prenatal Brain Injury
The National Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke reports that prenatal cerebral vascular accidents, or strokes, blood clotting disorders, fetal alcohol syndrome and fetal cocaine exposure, and disruptions in the blood supply to the unborn child because of infection or placental abnormalities constitute a primary cause of seizure disorders that used to be called "idiopathic," meaning a cause was not known. Imaging of infants' brains demonstrating dysplasia or abnormal tissue formation has led neurologists to a new understanding of how seizure potential begins. After birth, when this abnormal tissue is subjected to a stressor, which could be anything from dehydration, electrolyte imbalance, a fever or even flashing lights, the brain starts sending disordered signals and a seizure occurs.
Congenital disabilities, including autism and cerebral palsy, are heavily associated with seizures. More than 20 percent of all seizures are related to a developmental disorder.
Prenatal Blood Glucose
Maternal diabetes is one way that a fetus can be injured, and not only in mothers who take insulin. American Diabetic Association guidelines for the management of diabetes in pregnancy, as reported in the May 2008 issue of "Diabetes Care," noted that an increasing number of women are already diabetic when they become pregnant, due to increasing maternal age and the epidemic of obesity. Both high and low blood sugar, a pattern seen in undiagnosed diabetes and in people who eat excessive sugar and little protein or fat, can lead to oxygen deprivation of the fetal brain, a common precursor to seizure disorders.
Head Injuries
Brain trauma from falls, shaken baby syndrome and other forms of child abuse, sports injuries and falling objects cause many seizures. Prevention requires parent education and support, the use of helmets for skiing, rock climbing, skateboarding, bike riding and motor cycle use, and avoidance of injury in sports through helmet use and careful coaching.
Immediate treatment of a head injury with medications designed to prevent brain swelling, and with hypothermia or cooling of the brain in severe cases can lessen the damage done and help prevent seizures.
Drugs and Medications
The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke has accepted multiple chemical substances as causes of seizures.
Illegal substance exposures before birth that can lead to seizures include heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine and hallucinogenic agents. Personal use of these same substances can also induce seizures, and the dose required is highly variable.
Alcohol consumed by a mother can also increase the infant's risk of seizure, even at less than intoxicating levels. Both binge-drinking and chronic alcohol abuse can cause seizures to develop in adults.
Smoking damages the placenta, which supplies all the oxygen to the fetus and can lead to low birth weight, a risk factor for seizure disorders. Smoking can also increase seizure frequency.
Some prescription medications list seizures as a possible side effect, including many of the psychotropic medications, but this refers to a single seizure, not the start of a true seizure pattern. People who have a seizure disorder are advised to refrain from many medications, including most antidepressants and anti-psychotic drugs, because these substances will lower the seizure threshold, increasing the individuals' vulnerability to seizures.
Infections
Maternal bladder and kidney infections, diarrhea, coughs lasting more than on week and vaginal yeast infection are associated with an increased risk for epilepsy, according to research from Denmark reported in the May 2008 issue of "Pediatrics."
Meningitis, encephalitis and any infection that results in a temperature over 103 degrees Fahrenheit can cause seizure patterns. Quick recognition, diagnosis and treatment of infections is critical in preventing this from occurring.
