Buttler Nick 11 March 2008 EN 1123-19 Dr. Harris "Epilepsy." familydoctor.org. Dec 2007. American Academy of Family Physicians. 4 Mar 2008 <http://familydoctor.org/online/famdocen/home/common/brain/disorders/214.htm l>. This article is addressed to the epileptic. The first section tells what epilepsy really is and what it is not. It is a brain disorder, but not a mental disorder; and it is not considered epilepsy until multiple seizures occur. The article also discusses the symptoms of a seizure, such as confusion, muscle spasms, loss of consciousness, etc. The second section discusses what to do to an epileptic if they do have a seizure. Stay calm, don't move the epileptic around, put a pillow under their head, etc. The third section is simple. Take your medicine every day if you're on seizure medicine. The fourth section says to take your medicine as soon as you realize you forgot a dose if you did. The fifth section says not to take extra medicine if you're about to have a seizure. The doctor prescribed your amount for you for a reason. The sixth section explains that you can go off your medicine depending on what your doctor says. Some factors are how long you have been seizure free, how quickly the seizures were controlled, and other illnesses. The seventh section says to ask your doctor before taking other medicines as they may interfere with the seizure medicine.
The eighth section says to avoid alcohol if you're epileptic. It can make seizures easier to occur, and it can interfere with the medicine. The ninth section says that seizures can affect an unborn baby during pregnancy, as well as the seizure medicine. The tenth section explains that the laws about driving with epilepsy vary from state to state. The 11th section says to call your doctor if anything changes about the way you seize or if you change your medicine.
"Epilepsy - Home Page." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 11 Oct 2007. CDC. 4 Mar 2008 <http://www.cdc.gov/Epilepsy/>. This article starts out explaining that epilepsy results in different types of seizures and that they come from abnormal brain activity that cause changes in the body's movement. Statistic time! 2.7 million Americans have epilepsy. $15.5 billion are spent on epilepsy every year. The young and elderly are the main people whom epilepsy affects. Ten percent of all Americans will have at least one seizure in their life. Three percent are diagnosed with epilepsy by age 80. There are many organizations that help epileptics that sponsored a conference in 1997 called Living Well with Epilepsy I. These include CDC, the American Epilepsy Society (AES), the National Association of Epilepsy Centers (NAEC), and the Epilepsy Foundation (EF). They discussed issues such as eliminating seizures, low self-esteem, and epilepsy research.
Gordon, Melanie Apel. Let's Talk about Epilepsy. New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc., 2000. This e-Book is very simple. It is considered "juvenile literature." However, it has some very useful information in it. It starts out talking about a boy named Gabriel who is having a seizure. The next page describes what electrical impulses are. One picture in this same section shows two pictures of brain waves. One is a picture of normal brain waves, and the other shows brain waves during a seizure. They look very different. The next page and section discuss what epilepsy is and the fact that it is a result of having too many neural messages at once. The next page tells the difference between generalized and partial seizures. The next section discusses the causes of epilepsy. The three main causes are a head injury, lead poisoning, and a brain infection. The next page tells what to do if someone has a seizure and does not mention anything significantly different than the other articles and books. The next section says to see a doctor if you're epileptic. It also mentions the different ways of diagnosing epilepsy such as an EEG, and MRI, and a CAT scan. The next page is about treatment of epilepsy. It says that you can either take medicine or have surgery. The next section discusses the side effects of antiepileptic medicines. These may include fatigue, crankiness, nausea, rashes, or even more seizures. The last section sums up the book and what you should do if you have epilepsy. It says to take your medicine on time and to see the doctor.
O'Brien, Dennis. "Understanding Your Pet's Epilepsy." Canine Epilepsy Network. 19 Apr 2002. CEN. 4 Mar 2008 <http://www.canineepilepsy.net/basics/basics_index.html>. Epilepsy does not only affect people...it affects animals too, especially dogs. The first section says to see your veterinarian about your pet's epilepsy. It explains not to believe everything you see on the Internet because people who post things do not know as much as a veterinarian. The next section simply explains what epilepsy is, much like all the other articles. The sixth section explains how a veterinarian diagnoses epilepsy. The main way epilepsy is diagnosed in animals is through an EEG (electroencephalogram) while the animal is asleep. Farther down the page, there is a section called "What is a seizure?" It first explains how it is electrical chaos in the brain. Then it talks about the different types of seizures such as generalized grand mal, petit mal, simple focal, and complex focal. It also says the symptoms of each type. The next big section is about what causes seizures such as plant toxins, metabolic state, and physical damage to the pet. Another section discusses treatment pets. in There are some antiepileptic drugs for dogs such as Phenobarbital, primidone, felbamate, gabapentine, topiramate, potassium bromide, and diazepam. Regular human drugs don't always work on dogs because dogs may metabolize the drug too quickly, and some drugs for humans are even toxic to dogs.
Schneider, Joseph W., and Peter Conrad. Having Epilepsy. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1983. This book tells a little bit of everything about epilepsy. The first chapter is called "The Sociology of Illness." It explains that illness and disease are not the same. Disease is physiological, and disease is social and psychological. The second chapter explains what epilepsy is and its history. The third chapter is about epileptics and how they respond to the discovery that they have epilepsy and what their diagnosis is. The fourth chapter is about the family life of epileptics. It discusses how epileptics' families help them with their epilepsy The fifth and sixth chapters discuss how epilepsy usually results in a loss of control. It also discusses certain methods used to regain that control. The seventh chapter discusses how epilepsy has a stigma and why some people don't tell certain friends that they have epilepsy. The eighth chapter discusses epileptic patients' relationships with doctors. The ninth chapter discusses medication and how epileptics use medicines to maintain control of their seizures. The tenth and final chapter has insights and things to use for epilepsy research.
Scott, Donald. About Epilepsy. Revised. New York: International Universities Press, Inc., 1973. This book is about epilepsy, which is obvious from the title. The first chapter (Fits, faints and falls) explains what a fit, a faint, and a fall is. Although they are all different things, they can all happen at the same time, and they can all be symptoms of epilepsy. A fit is another word for a seizure. This chapter also talks about Hippocrates. He developed a theory on the cause of fits. He thought it was because of blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile. The next chapter tells what causes fits. It illustrates the brain and nervous system and their anatomy and physiology. Some causes of fits that are mentioned are poisons and flashing lights, or it can be unknown. Fits that have an unknown cause are called idiopathic. Chapter 3 discusses the types of fits, which are mostly mentioned in all of the other articles. Chapter 4 discusses diagnosis of fits, which is also mentioned in the other articles. Chapter 5 explains faints and falls. They are basically just passing out. Chapters 6 and 7 explain what doctors and surgeons can do to treat epilepsy. The rest of the book is pretty self-explanatory. It just talks about the history and sociology of epilepsy and how to prevent fits.
Sutherland, John M., and Howard Tait. The Epilepsies. Edinburgh and London: E. & S. Livingstone Ltd., 1969. The Epilepsies gets very deep into the neurology of epilepsy. Chapter 1 discusses the basic classification of epilepsies: primary and secondary. It also mentions the causes of each type. Chapter 2 is about the clinical features of epilepsy. It discusses the different types of seizures and their symptoms. There are many photographs in this chapter that show what each type of seizure looks like. It also has a diagram that shows the difference between different types of seizures that originate in the temporal lobes. Chapter 3 is called "A Note on Certain Varieties of Epilepsy." It discusses some different causes of epilepsy. Chapter 4, "Conditions which may Simulate Epilepsy," says that certain things that look like epilepsy really are not. Some examples of these are fainting, migraines, and sleep paralysis. Chapter 5 is about the different diagnoses of epilepsy, which are discussed in the other articles. It has lots of photographs and many illustrations of brain waves. Chapter 6 is about treatment of epilepsy. It mentions lots of social counseling to help with things such as schooling, occupation, driving, being in the military, insurance, marriage, and travel. Chapter 7 is about antiepileptic drugs and their chemical makeup. Chapter 8 discusses complications that can arise from epilepsy such as psychosis and deterioration. Chapter 9 discusses the surgical treatment of epilepsy and brain surgery. Chapter 10 discusses intracranial (inside the head) and extracranial (outside the head) causes of secondary epilepsy. It also discusses the types of primary epilepsy (grand mal and petit mal).
Wiebe, Samuel, Warren T. Blume, John P. Girvin, and Michael Eliasziw. "A Randomized, Controlled Trial of Surgery for Temporal-Lobe Epilepsy." The New England Journal of Medicine 345:311-31802 Aug 2001 03 Mar 2008 <https://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/345/5/311>. This article is from a medical journal called The New England Journal of Medicine. It is about an experiment performed to see how safe surgery for temporal lobe epilepsy is. The scientists compared medical treatment to surgical treatment. They gathered temporal lobe epileptics 16 and older whose medical treatment was not working and performed EEG's and MRI's on them and eventually gave them surgery. After surgery, they went back onto their original medicines on new adjusted dosages. All of the patients on the drugs kept a seizure journal. The scientists assessed them to see if they really were seizures. Overall, most of the patients who received surgery became seizure free. This experiment proved that surgery is superior to medication in treating epilepsy.