Seizures

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A seizure is the physical findings or changes in behavior that occur after an episode of abnormal electrical activity in the brain.

See also:

• Generalized tonic clonic seizure
• Partial (focal) seizure
• Petit mal (absence) seizure
• Epilepsy
• Fever (febrile) convulsions (seizures in children with high fever)

Secondary seizures; Reactive seizures; Seizure - secondary; Seizure - reactive

There are a wide variety of possible symptoms of seizures, depending on what parts of the brain are involved. Many, if not all, types of seizures cause loss of awareness and some cause twitching or shaking of the body.

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However, some seizures may be hard to notice because they consist of staring spells that can easily go unnoticed. Occasionally, seizures can cause temporary changes in sensation or vision.

Symptoms of seizures come on suddenly, over just seconds to a minute, and may include:

• Change in consciousness, so that you can't remember some period of time
• Change in emotion, like unexplainable fear, panic, joy, or laughter
• Change in sensation of the skin, usually spreading over the arm, leg, or trunk
• Changes in vision, including flashing lights, or (rarely) hallucinations (seeing things that aren't there)
• Loss of muscle control and falling, often very suddenly
• Muscle movement such as twitching that might spread up or down an arm or leg
• Muscle tension/tightening that causes twisting of the body, head, arms, or legs
• Tasting a bitter or metallic flavor

Symptoms may stop after a few minutes, or continue for 15 minutes. They rarely continue longer.

Shaking of the entire body when it occurs should last a few minutes and stop within 5 minutes.

A seizure may be related to a temporary condition, such as exposure to drugs, withdrawal from certain drugs, a high fever, or abnormal levels of sodium or glucose in the blood. If the repeated seizures do not happen again once the underlying problem is corrected, the person does not have epilepsy.

In other cases, injury to the brain (for example, stroke or head injury) causes brain tissue to be abnormally excited.