Sponsor |  BytMiHrd | Jun 13, 2006 10:43am | | Depending on state laws, you can get a liscense if you have been seizure free for a certain time period. In Michigan where I live, it is 6 months seizure free. I haven't done that since 2001, so I can't drive still. Many epileptics have controlled seizures and can drive, however. |
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Sponsor | | captcarnage | Jun 13, 2006 3:07pm | | So, when you have an attack, you don't know it until it's over, or are you sometimes aware of what is happening? |
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Sponsor | | drjohncc | Jun 13, 2006 5:28pm | To Geeque:
Cure . . . well, sort of. There is a basic principle that suggests that if you are doing well in treatment, without either behavioral or electrophysiological evidence of a seizure for 3 years, such that SOME neurologists will consider you POSSIBLY cured. You'll likely come off meds/diet, etc., and then you'll be checked repeatedly over a perioid of time. After that, if nothing new shows up, then we accept it as cure. Others don't accept this idea at all.
I struggle with this term (cure) as a neuropsychologist (less as a pharmacologist . . I'm also one of those) because many (if not most) people also have some cognitive difficulties that are occuring in the context of the seizures. A very high percentage of those people continue to have cognitive problems even without the discharges. Another percentage continue to have cognitive problems long after they stop taking medications. Cure? Probably only in a small percentage, unless we're ONLY talking about stopping the abnormal discharges.
Finally, as everyone here knows . . . there's more than one time of seizure disorder. While there are similar patterns based upon form, location, spread, etc., each person is a little bit different (neurological) and what specific neuronal pathways get used or abused by the discharges can be sublty different. This explains why some people get auras of sound, others of smell, some of visual disturbance, others get combinations, and some get zip. Some even get orgams from the ictal phenomenon, but it's not pleasant and you wouldn't wish that on anyone.
So, while there are features common to many (e.g. auras), some will have expressions of the disease that are simply uncommon.
BTW, to Captcarnage: It depends upon what area of the brain is involved. Classically, simple partial seizures imply that consciousness is not altered. Complex partial seizures alters consciousness. If the spread is primary and across the corpus callosum, then the person not only loses consciousness awareness, but motor control as well.
Try epilepsy.com/epilepsy/types_seizures.html [epilepsy.com/epilepsy/types_seizures.html]
Hope this helps.
jc |
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Sponsor | | WasChabad | Nov 23, 2007 4:24pm | | This is important to read. |
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