Determine whether a person has epilepsy and what type, only a psychiatrist or neurologist can. Do not try to diagnose yourself or loved ones on your own. This is too serious. There are many more innocuous disorders that the inexperienced person might confuse with epilepsy. Therefore, differential diagnosis is the first thing the attending physician will think about. What are epileptic seizures and the disease in general? What do relatives of a sick person need to know?
It's hard to "catch" an attack
Epileptic seizures rarely happen in the doctor's office. Therefore, "witness testimony" will help the psychiatrist understand what is happening and make the correct diagnosis. So if you have seen an epileptic seizure in a relative, be sure to tell the doctor everything in detail. Your observation can be of great help to the patient.
Not epilepsy, but diabetes?
Anyone who has experienced a seizure or something similar should seek help. If others say that you have been unconscious for some time or have lostcontrol over oneself, one cannot ignore their opinion. Perhaps you are not sick at all and epileptic seizures are not about you. For example, there are episodes of loss of consciousness in people with diabetes.
With support team
Don't go to the doctor alone. Even if you remember everything about your condition, there is always a chance that loved ones have seen more and they will be able to give specific information to the doctor. Perhaps they will remember what happened before the seizure and what followed. A person himself cannot always remember all these features, but they are very important.
Doctor's questions
An epileptic-like seizure can be triggered by lack of sleep, alcohol or drugs. And it will not be an epileptic syndrome, but a completely different condition. The doctor will also ask under what circumstances the seizure occurred, how long it lasted, whether it started immediately after the person stood up from a sitting position, whether it was once in a lifetime, whether the patient was treated by other specialists and what medications he took. Did you feel exhausted or confused after the attack. All these details are very important.
Objective research
The brain should be examined using an MRI machine, this will exclude such phenomena as a tumor or an infectious disease of the nervous system. Because in these cases, antiepileptic drugs will be useless. They also make an encephalogram, which shows whether there are disturbances in brain activity, thus revealing a tendency toseizures.
What do seizures look like?
Epileptic seizures are convulsions with or without loss of consciousness. At the same time, a stupefaction of consciousness, called an aura, appears before the beginning. During it, a person may experience all sorts of deceptions of the senses. With a serious attack, a coma can develop, the person turns pale, a little later the skin may even turn blue. Doesn't react to others. After an attack, amnesia often develops, which is why only a person from the outside can help in the diagnosis.
Epilepsy is a formidable diagnosis. But for many, with adequate treatment, a seizure occurs only once. The patient enjoys life and is not afraid of the future.
