![]() However, telling the difference between single and multiple seizures isn’t always as straightforward as it sounds. Usually this involves a discussion with a neurologist to see which treatment option is most suitable. If someone has a second seizure it suggests they have epilepsy, so starting anti-seizure treatments would be appropriate. In people with dementia, the fact that they have dementia can be the ‘why’, but other causes should also be considered – including stroke, head injury, and infections. However, doctors are likely to look for causes as for why a single seizure may have happened. While they can be distressing to witness, people who have a seizure typically return to their normal selves soon afterward with no long-term effects. ![]() As a result, doctors do not usually prescribe anti-seizure medicines in someone after a single seizure. When is anti-seizure medication typically prescribed?Īnyone can have an epileptic seizure, but most people who have a single seizure will not have any more. What we don’t know yet is whether starting treatment for epilepsy might help to slow down dementia and whether it might help keep people’s memory function better for longer. They might want to perform some extra tests and may want to start some extra medicines to treat this problem. If you think that you or someone you know with dementia may be having epileptic seizures, you should tell a doctor. ![]() There are medicines that are effective at reducing, and hopefully stopping, epileptic seizures. Can seizures be managed in people with dementia? Sometimes these nerve cells can become 'hyper-excitable', meaning they can behave uncontrollably, causing epileptic seizures. In addition, we know that two proteins that build up in the brain of people with Alzheimer’s disease – amyloid and tau – affect how the brain’s nerve cells communicate with each other. As cells in the brain die and the brain shrinks this can lead to epilepsy. A similar problem is happening in the brain in dementia. This happens for some people after a stroke, a head injury, or with a brain infection like meningitis. Ultimately, anything that changes the structure of the brain can cause seizures. Why do people with dementia develop seizures? We interviewed our participants one year later and found that those who had described having had epileptic seizures previously performed less well on memory tests than those who showed no evidence of epilepsy. In our group, around 1 in 8 patients with dementia described episodes which we believe could have been epileptic seizures. It quickly became clear that most people don’t know that having dementia, particularly Alzheimer’s disease, can increase your risk of seizures. In some people, seizures may happen even before memory problems become apparent.Īs part of my research, I recruited people from the local memory clinic here in Exeter. However, more recent research has suggested that seizures can occur early-on in Alzheimer’s disease. It was thought they were a reflection of how much the brain had changed and shrunk because of it. Who might be affected by seizures?įor a long time, researchers believed epileptic seizures occurred only in people who had long been diagnosed with dementia. Understandably, the latter are more easily missed, especially as the person affected will often quickly be back to normal afterwards. We see involuntary repeating movements, often of the hands and arms, or of the face (chewing, lip-smacking or swallowing). These can involve brief periods of increased amnesia or unresponsiveness. Most epileptic seizures in people with dementia are known as focal onset seizures. But this is not what most epileptic seizures look like. Generalised tonic-clonic seizures are hard to miss. People become unresponsive, they fall to the ground, become stiff and their whole-body shakes in a convulsion. Most of us are familiar with the kind of epileptic seizures we see on TV or in films. There are two common types of epileptic seizures: This is because epileptic seizures can often be subtle. However, how common they are remains unclear. We’ve known this for a long time – it was described by Alzheimer himself in 1911. People with dementia are at risk of having epileptic seizures. What do we know about seizures and dementia? These are the questions that I have been researching since starting my PhD in 2016. I'm a student funded by Alzheimer’s Society as part of the University of Exeter doctoral training centre. How common are epileptic seizures in dementia? Who is most at risk of having them? What do these seizures look like? What effect do they have on how someone’s memory changes over time? This article was first published in 2019 and most recently updated in September 2022.
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