Seizures are situations where there is a brief alteration in motor, sensory, autonomic or behaviour function.It could be due to various causes.
Causes:
Anoxic – lack of oxygen, Syncope( Fainting)Cardiac – heart abnormalities causing lack of blood supply to brain.
Febrile Seizure – associated with fever in 6 months to 6 years old children.Metabolic – low blood glucose, low Sodium, low Calcium, low Magnesium.
Toxic – a whole range of medicines, food, poisons.
Trauma – head injury
Tumours – Brain tumours
Psychological – associated with mental health issues not essentially needing any intervention.
Epileptic – when it is associated with electrical discharges in the brain. If a seizure occurs, all the above causes should be carefully considered before labelling as epileptic seizure.EEG ( brain wave recording) should only be done if we know what we are dealing with! It can be abnormal in 4-5% of children who are normal. Beware; It can be false positive.I have seen a few children who had had EEG for their symptoms and the EEG showed epileptiform discharges . I decided to wait as I was not convinced about the symptoms. They proved me right and have remained seizure free without any treatment.