Epilepsy, or seizure disorder, encompasses a group of conditions characterized by recurrent seizures-brief electrical disturbances in the brain that can cause a variety of symptoms such as strange sensations, changes in behavior or emotions, muscle spasms, convulsions, and a sudden loss of awareness or consciousness.

About 10 percent of all people, approximately eight million Americans, may experience a seizure during their lifetimes. However, only three percent of the population has recurrent seizures, or epilepsy.

Sometimes, a clear cause of epilepsy can be identified. A common cause of epilepsy is head injury due to an automobile accident or gunshot wound, and other causes include stroke, infection, poisoning, and brain tumors. In some cases, epilepsy is genetic. Several types of epilepsy, such as temporal lobe epilepsy, can be cured with surgery, while other types are best treated with medicines.

Sophisticated diagnostic techniques, such an encephalograms (EEGs), video-EEG telemetry, computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), positron emission tomography (PET), and functional MRI, are used to assess epilepsy.

There are many different types of epilepsy that are distinguished by causes, extent, and effects. Among these, there are two major types of epilepsy: generalized epilepsy, in which seizures affect the entire brain, and partial (or focal) epilepsy, in which seizures begin in a specific portion of the brain.

Generalized epilepsies have no defined area in the brain from which the seizures originate. There are two varieties of generalized epilepsies: idiopathic, in which the brain behaves normally between seizures and the cause of seizures is unknown; and symptomatic, in which there is a clear structural abnormality that contributes to the seizures. Because these seizures are generalized and have no clear initiation point, they often are not amenable to cure with surgery, but can still be treated surgically with palliative operations like the vagal nerve stimulator or a corpus callosotomy. Some patients, particularly those with idiopathic generalized seizures, will respond well to anticonvulsant medication. The seizures caused by generalized epilepsy include:

• Absence, or petit mal, seizures: These seizures are characterized by a brief lapse in awareness that lasts a few seconds and causes the person to stare or have twitches in the eyelids or face muscles. They may occur up to hundreds of times a day, commonly begin in before age two and end after childhood.
  
  
• Tonic-clonic, or grand mal, seizures: These seizures are characterized by a sudden and complete loss of consciousness and a stiffening the arms and legs that causes the person to fall (called the tonic phase) before a rhythmic jerking (called the clonic phase) begins. When the seizing does not stop, it may become a status epilepticus seizure. This uncontrolled seizing requires immediate medical attention to prevent brain damage or death.
  
  
• Tonic seizures: These seizures are similar to tonic-clonic seizures, but are not followed by a rhythmic jerking of the clonic phase.
  
  
• Myoclonic seizures: These generalized seizures involve very brief, lightning-like jerks of any part of the body without a loss of consciousness.
  
  
• Atonic seizures: People with these seizures experience a sudden loss of muscle tone resulting in collapse, sometimes head first, into the ground.