Seizure disorder questions

stn2003, RN · Mar 17, 2006

People are not routinely diagnosed with seizure disorder after a single seizure, it would only be if they persisted. A single seizure could be cause by severely off kilter electrolytes, infection/high fever, sever HTN, etc. There are a variety of cardio/neuro causes that may cause seizure-like episodes as well. If the seizures persisted seizure disorder may be investigated, as well as brain injury, tumors etc.

Is someone able to comment on what constitutes a seizure disorder? Can you be diagnosed with a seizure disorder after having only one seizure?
One of my co-workers daughters had a seizure last year. The docs never could figure out why she had the seizure. She has been weaned off her meds and has been seizure-free since then. No guarantees it won't happen again, but thus far she has not been diagnosed with a seizure disorder.

allnurses Guide · Mar 18, 2006

It is my understanding also that one seizure does not equal a seizure disorder or epilepsy.

I had one and was told that 60 % of seizures are undiagnosed. We just never know the reason. And that one seizure does not usually mean you will have another.

I had another 3 months later. I now officially have epilepsy and take meds for that. Have not had a seizure for 2 years.

steph

Poohsdw · Mar 18, 2006

I had a seizure when I was 14 years old and didn't have a second one until I was 23 years old. I had an EEG after the first one but no seizure activity was found, I had another EEG after the second seizure and they detected sezuire activity. I was then diagnosed with adolescent onset Epilepsy. WHo knows why it happened like that? I have been on medicine and seizure free for four years, thank the Lord!

grannynurse FNP student · Mar 18, 2006

Over a twenty year period, I had three closed head injuries. Seven months after I had the last one, I had my first seizure. It took almost six months for me to be diagnosed and put on the appropriate medication. I had four more seizures over the next five years. Since 1995 I have been seizure free. I had to have a sleep deprivation EEG to diagnose my seizure disorder, as partial complex one.

Grannynurse:balloons:

Laura77598 · Mar 18, 2006

I have had epilepsy for 25 years. I had febrile seizures as a child (at around 2-4 years old), and developed absence seizures which progressed to temporal lobe seizures (temporal lobe epilepsy). I had surgery to correct my seizures at the Methodist Hospital in Houston. I still take one pill before bedtime, but I am now seizure free, and I have now problems. Praise God! I have posted on this site before about my seizures and my subsequent surgery to treat them. I am a very fortunate peron. Fortunately, there are many new and better anticonvulsants on the market today. When I was a kid, Tegretol, Dilantin, Phenobarbital, and Mysoline were pretty much it for me. Meds have come a LONG way since the seventies!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I understand a seizure disorder to be an on-going condition with subsequent and prevalant seizures. MRI is a GREAT way to get more answers as to their cause. That's how mine were found and treated.

Laura

MIA-RN1, RN · Mar 18, 2006

My son was dx'd with seizure disorder at age 3 after multiple episodes of febrile seizures. He'd seize at 99.3 but when his temp was highest (105) he was fine. Very confusing for me as a young single parent. Anyway, they said it was a seizure disorder because he'd had so many and then the neuro put him on dilantin for 2 years.

Neuro explained to me that 'seizure begets seizure' and the more you have the more you are likely to have. So the med was prophylactic as his EEG's were always totally normal, but they said he had a seizure disorder.

At age five he was taken off the dilantin and no seizures since. He'll be 18 in a few weeks. And he is no longer considered as having a seizure disorder.

So I think yes, you need more than one seizure to be dx'd.