MILAN (ITALPRESS) – Epilepsy is a neurological condition characterized by the tendency to develop recurrent seizures, i.e. sudden episodes due to an abnormal and improvised electrical activity of brain cells: crises can take different forms, from short absences or unusual sensations to more evident involuntary movements and loss of consciousness. Their duration is generally limited to a few seconds or minutes and in most cases spontaneously resolves.
The incidence of epilepsy varies greatly with age: According to the data collected by the Italian League against epilepsy, there are 86 new cases for 100 thousand individuals in the first year of life and 180 new cases for 100 thousand after 75 years.
“Epilepsy is a chronic condition of the brain where neurons have a certain ease of doing abnormal electrical activity, which determines these moments of seizures. This is a situation that spontaneously repeats itself: often we think of seizures as a type of crisis, but there are also very short things,” said Maria Paola Canevini, professor of child neuropsychiatry at the University of Milan, interviewed by Marco Klinger for Top Medicine, TV format of the news agency Italpress.
For a doctor who is facing an epileptic crisis is fundamental, explains Canevini, “to have a story of what the patient feels and what the witnesses saw: Being able to make a precise diagnosis is easier with the tools we have now, namely encephalography, magnetic resonance of encephalus and genetics. 70% of patients are well controlled with therapy they take and have no crisis, but there are also difficult epilepsy to cure: we need multidisciplinary and integrated care, taking into account all aspects that can affect the quality of life of patients.”.
Scenes related to epilepsy, he adds, can be presented “at all ages. The first crisis can occur in childhood, but also in over 65: these are the two phases with the highest incidence. The causes are many, but in any case there is a hypereccitability of neurons and brain cells: In fact, an abnormal electrical discharge is configured, which gives these behavioral manifestations. Many people live with epilepsy in Italy and in the world: in our country it is estimated that they are about 500-600 thousand, but the number is higher in developing countries, where there are causes that can determine an epilepsy with greater frequency; where, for example, wars are more often conjured by brain injury.”.
Canevini’s analysis focuses on two aspects: possible restrictions for patients and social stigma. The first, he emphasizes, “in most cases they are really few, because when we manage to have a therapy able to control the crisis completely people can make a normal life: There are clearly situations where one has to pay attention to the risks that can arise from a crisis with loss of consciousness, because we have not managed to control it. Epilepsy is a bit afraid, because it leads behind a story of stigma: talking about it is essential to try to reduce this stigma. Surely several steps have been taken in the last 20-30 years: first people did not tell this kind of episodes to their friends for fear of being discriminated, even thought that who had epilepsy could do strange things; In Africa, where I go to work, there are still beliefs of this type, while in Italy and Europe we see very rarely a reticence of patients in telling the problem.”.
Finally, the importance of addressing the question is emphasized, “to a specialist, to distinguish this crisis from other short-term events such as a fainting or a psychogenic crisis. Clinical history of patients is fundamental: If we need to understand specifically what the problem is, we can keep them admitted for days. New drugs are so many and, compared to the past, they are much easier to tolerate and manageable: care is not only pharmaceutical, but also surgical for those patients who need it; in this case the brain part that determines the crises takes away. There are definitely difficult epilepsy to cure, but hope must always remain open.”.
-Photos taken from video Top medicine
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