An Online Resource On Cerebral Palsy

This site is intended to provide information on the associated conditions of cerebral palsy.

Seizure Disorders (epilepsy)

Normally, nerve transmission in the brain occurs in an orderly way, allowing a smooth flow of electrical activity. A seizure occurs when these neurons generate uncoordinated electrical discharges that spread throughout the brain. This can occur with both normal and abnormal nerve cells.

Interestingly, certain areas of the brain are more likely than others to be the source of a seizure. These include the motor cortex (responsible for the initiation of body movement) and the temporal lobes (including a special deep area called the hippocampus, which is involved in memory). Since the most common form of cerebral palsy, spastic cerebral palsy, involves damage to the motor cortex, there is a high chance that someone with cerebral palsy will also have seizures.

Seizures can cause involuntary changes in body movement or function, sensation, awareness, or behavior. A seizure can last from a few seconds to a few minutes. There are more than 20 different types of seizures.

Seizures are often associated with epilepsy and related seizure disorders.

Seizure is often associated with a sudden and involuntary contraction of a group of muscles. However, a seizure can also be as subtle as marching numbness of a part of body, a brief loss of memory, sparkling of flashes, sniffing an unpleasant odor, a strange epigastric sensation or a sensation of fear.

Some seizure types are:

 petit mal seizure (an absence seizure, or very brief loss of consciousness)

 partial (focal) seizure (usually a motor or sensory seizure that is restricted to one side of the body)

 partial complex seizure (characterized by brief loss of consciousness, behavioral, emotional symptoms, loss of memory and automatisms; temporal lobe and frontal lobe seizures are often in this category)

 generalized tonic-clonic seizure (grand mal seizure; motor seizure of both sides of the body)
 

Unfortunately, the most common type of seizure experienced by those with cerebral palsy is the tonic-clonic seizure.

In a generalized tonic-clonic seizure, the person will usually emit a short cry and fall to the floor. Their muscles will stiffen (tonic phase) and then their extremities will jerk and twitch (clonic phase). Bladder control may be lost. Consciousness is regained slowly.

After a seizure, the person may feel fatigue, confusion and disorientation. This may last from 5 minutes to several hours or even days. Rarely, this disorientation may last up to 2 weeks. The person may fall asleep, or gradually become less confused until full consciousness is regained.