Controlling all the activities performed by the living organism, the brain receives all the internal and external stimuli were they are processed at specific specialized brain domains. Regular controlled brain activity resembles heavy traffic on a city’s road. Different road signs and traffic lights control road traffic. When coordinated, the traffic moves smoothly.

Epileptic activity or epileptic convulsion happens when brain activity takes place simultaneously at several brain regions in an uncontrolled fashion. Such a case would be equivalent to a failure of the road’s control system and a sudden intermittent simultaneous “green” traffic lights operation on the city’s roads that of course will immediately result by road jams.

Such a brain activity would cause different motor, emotional or psychiatric disturbances that will be addressed. The brain epileptic activity is categorized according to several criteria regarding the different stimuli causing the epileptic activity, brain location of the activity, the clinical outcomes of the uncoordinated brain activity, frequency of appearance of such an activity etc. Each one of the factors used for classification of the epileptic activity results by different symptoms placing the individual at different risk groups.

Convulsive epileptic activity has been shown to affect 1% of the general population while the percentage of abnormal brain activity is much higher. The physiological causes leading to such an epileptic brain activity are only partially identified. In certain instances different trauma factors has been located following car accidents, brain tumors, or infections have been attributed to causing the epileptic malfunction but in the majority of cases the causes still remain obscure. Three types of epileptic activities will be discussed namely “Grand Mal” epilepsy, “Petit Mal” epilepsy and Sub-Cortical epilepsy.

Grand Mal epilepsy

Prior to the epileptic seizure the patient may feel different irregular feelings that further may individually be recognized as warning signals of an approaching seizure. The unusual feelings or “Aura” are subjective to each patient. Some patients suddenly turn to be nervous, restless and agitated while others may turn to apathy and depression. In some instances an urge to rub different body parts may precede the epileptic convulsion.  Others may visualize different pictures or be seized by a terrible headache or bellyache.

The convulsion progresses rigorously as the individual becomes unconscious and falls to the ground with his teeth tightly locked, looses his bladder control and uncontrolled seizure and convulsions appear along with excessive sweating, rapid pulse and foaming mouth. It should be noted that some patients do not have any early warning “auras”.

Beside physical distress, the patient with epilepsy most often confronts fears and helplessness related to his inability to control his body function, situation or even to foresee the next creeping convulsion. The patients often may develop deep shame feelings, lack of self esteem as a fruitful productive individual capable of running and full control of his vocal, social and familial life. Thus, a tendency to withdraw after frequently finding themselves lying on the floor after an attack with wet pants, confused, with headache and surrounded by worried “audience”, unaware of their actions during the attack.

Petit Mal epilepsy

Unlike Grand Mal epilepsy where the convulsion may progress to long minutes, in petite mal the seizure has short duration timed in seconds, occurring sometimes so fast the individual may even be unaware that a convulsion has occurred.  In petit mal the patient may seem suddenly inattentive, staring unfocused, incoherent in his speech or having different disturbances in his fluency of speaking. There is never a state of unconsciousness, and the patient undergoing a petit mal epileptic activity may look for a short period of time as confused, temporarily frozen and only the sudden changes in the rhythm of activity may possibly hint the presence of an epileptic activity.

Petite mal affects young children early as four years old. The frequency of the epileptic activity increases while the child is not engaged in any physical or mental activity. In some cases the frequency of epileptic activity interfere with school activity and learning as the child gets “interrupted” during writing, reading or thinking, along with interrupted attention.

In other classes of epilepsy personality changes may occur, different perceptual pictures may be evident during the epileptic seizure including auditory hallucinations (the person may hear different sounds, voices, or tones), visual hallucinations (strange unfamiliar pictures appear, familiar objects may grow in size,  “shrink” or even change their form.

Intense “flood” of feelings may tilt the patient by anger bursts, feelings of hostility toward everyone else, intensified fears, delusional thoughts including the development of paranoiac delusions may suddenly appear. Despite the fact that the convulsive symptoms have temporarily passed, the personality changes persists. The individual may reveal changes in sexual behaviors that were characteristic of him prior to the epileptic outburst likewise his threshold toward violence or even the development of new religious ideas and the urge to fulfill a specific mission on earth. Frightening illusions like detachment or full-turn of the head on the shoulders, or bad smells illusions may appear.

It should be stated that six month old babies up to the age of 4 year old youngsters may under high fever show epileptic convulsions. Such a tendency has been shown to bare a familial genetic component without elevated risk of developing epilepsy in the following years of the child’s development.

Sub-Cortical epilepsy

Epilepsy is monitored by specific changes in the brain’s activity read by external electrodes attached to the scull (EEG). Despite frequent appearance of convulsive seizures, lack of conscience, development of specific smell, auditory and visual- illusions and certain delusions, sudden lack of bladder control, increased heart pulse and sweating, if no EEG changes are monitored, most often epilepsy would not be recognized or warranted. Since the etiology of the cerebral locus responsible for the latter symptoms is not related directly to the cerebral cortex no EEG changes  would be observed. In such cases a suspicion should be raised regarding the presence and involvement of sub-cortical epilepsy as evident by full blown or partial autonomic activity. A novel development of a biophysical, non-invasive accurate method to diagnose sub-cortical epilepsy have been recently developed (see treatment).

Treatment

The diagnosis of epilepsy is performed routinely and globally. Nevertheless, there are no known methods aimed to diagnose or medications to treat sub-cortical epilepsy nowadays. In contrast, a novel non-invasive, accurate, easy to perform biophysical method (BDTAK) has recently been introduced for the diagnosis of specific brain malfunctions leading to sub-cortical epilepsy thus consequently open new therapeutic avenues. Moreover, BDTAK makes possible to identify the genetic component as well as the relative efficacy of the medications employed by “Gene Plus” clinic’s experts. By running a comprehensive diagnosis and efficacy monitoring of the means employed utilizing BDTAK makes today possible to win the battle over epilepsy thus gaining full recovery of affected family and social life, vocal capacity and psychological competency.