TYPES OF EPILEPSY

Epileptic seizures are sometimes confused with psychogenic seizures, which are not due to abnormal electrical function. A psychogenic seizure may be a psychological response to stress, injury, emotional trauma, or other factors.

Types of epilepsy

There are many types of epilepsy. All types cause seizures. It can be difficult to determine what type of epilepsy you have because of the numerous possible causes, because different types of seizures can occur in the same person, and because the types may affect each person differently.
Some specific types of epilepsy are:

• Benign focal childhood epilepsy, which causes muscles all over the body to stiffen and jerk. These usually occur at night.
• Childhood and juvenile absence epilepsy, which causes staring into space, eye fluttering, and slight muscle jerks.
• Infantile spasms (West syndrome), which causes muscle spasms that affect a child's head, torso, and limbs. Infantile spasms usually begin before the age of 6 months.
• Juvenile myoclonic epilepsy, which causes jerking in the shoulders or arms.
• Lennox-Gastaut syndrome, which causes frequent and several different types of seizures to occur. This syndrome can lead to falls during a seizure, which can cause an injury.
• Temporal lobe epilepsy (the most common type of epilepsy in adults), which causes smacking of the lips or rubbing the hands together, emotional or thought disturbances, and hallucinations of sounds, smells, or tastes.

Epilepsy is not a form of intellectual disability or mental illness. Although a few forms of childhood epilepsy are associated with below-average intelligence and problems with physical and mental development, epilepsy does not cause these problems. Seizures may look scary or strange, but they do not make a person crazy, violent, or dangerous.

Not everyone who has a seizure has epilepsy. Seizures that are not epileptic may result from several different medical conditions such as poisoning, fever, fainting, or alcohol or drug withdrawal. Seizures that occur at the time of a disease, injury, or illness and stop when the condition improves are not related to epilepsy. But if seizures occur repeatedly (become chronic), occurring weeks, months, or even years after the injury or illness, you have developed epilepsy as a result of the condition.
There are several other conditions with similar symptoms, such as fainting or seizures caused by high fevers.