Here are some words that you may hear.
Understanding these words can help you understand
your condition.
Add-on drug:
A medication taken along with another medication to treat the same condition.
AMPA receptor:
A type of receptor on nerve cells that helps receive signals. When they receive too many signals, a seizure can happen.
Antiepileptic drug (AED):
A medication used to treat different types of seizures. Also may be called an anticonvulsant.
Aura:
A warning you may feel before a seizure. It is a strange feeling or sense that lets you know a seizure is about to happen. This is different for each person.
Breakthrough seizure:
A seizure that happens in spite of successful treatment with anti-seizure medication(s).
Complex partial seizure:
A seizure that starts in one part of the brain. Your awareness is affected.
Convulsive seizure:
A seizure that, regardless of origin, includes involuntary convulsive or jerking movements, most often with loss of consciousness.
Efficacy:
A measure of how a medication helps treat a condition or symptoms.
Epilepsy:
A group of related disorders in which a person is at risk of having recurrent unprovoked seizures.
Focal seizure:
Another term that means "partial-onset seizure." Starts in one part of the brain.
Generalized seizure:
A seizure that starts in both sides of the brain at the same time.
Grand mal seizure:
Another term that means "primary generalized tonic-clonic seizure (PGTC)."
Half-life:
The time it takes for the level of a drug in the body to reduce by half. If a drug has a short half-life, it may need to be taken more often than a drug with a long half-life.
Idiopathic generalized epilepsy:
A type of epilepsy that can cause many different types of seizures, including primary generalized tonic-clonic seizures.
Neuron:
A nerve cell. The brain has billions of neurons. They send signals to each other.
Partial-onset seizure:
A seizure that starts in one part of the brain. Also known as a focal seizure.
Primary generalized tonic-clonic seizure:
This type of seizure starts in both sides of the brain at the same time. During the seizure, muscles become stiff and then make jerking movements. Also known as a grand mal seizure.
- Primary means the seizure happens without another one happening first
- Generalized means it starts in both sides of the brain at the same time
- Tonic is the first stage of the seizure, when the muscles stiffen
- Clonic is the second stage, when the muscles begin to jerk rapidly
Seizure:
A manifestation of uncontrolled electrical activity in the brain. It affects how you feel, move, act, or think for a brief period of time.
Side effects:
Unwanted symptoms caused by medical treatment.
Simple partial seizure:
A seizure that starts in one part of the brain. Your awareness is not affected.
SUDEP:
Sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP) is the unexpected death of a person with epilepsy, without an accident, trauma, or any known cause.
Tonic-clonic seizure:
A seizure that causes muscles to become stiff and then make jerking movements.
Triggers:
Things that can cause a seizure to happen. Two examples are flashing lights and stress.
Uncontrolled seizures:
When you continue to have seizures despite receiving treatment.
