So, you’ve been diagnosed with epilepsy, and you don’t know why you’ve got it.
Why do you, or why does your loved one have seizures?
It’s common to want to know this, and there are many possible causes of epilepsy. but there are also situations where it is just not clear and in about half the people diagnosed, they will never know why they have epilepsy.
Firstly, anyone can develop epilepsy. It does not discriminate and is seen in all ages and cultures.
Essentially anything that causes damage to brain tissue, can cause seizures. Even if this is just a tiny area of the brain, it can affect how the brain cells send and receive messages and may lead to seizures and epilepsy.
Some known causes
People can have epilepsy from birth, inherit it or develop it from injury, disease, or infection. Some events that can cause epilepsy include:
- Head injury or brain trauma
- Stroke or brain haemorrhage
- Lack of oxygen to the brain for instance during birth trauma, heart attack or drug overdose
- Brain infections
- Brain tumours
- Alcohol or substance abuse
In other circumstances, epilepsy may be caused by:
- Brain abnormalities present at birth
- Genetic factors
- Conditions that affect the brain such as Alzheimer’s Disease
- Alcohol or drug abuse
Sometimes there may be more than one cause of the epilepsy. Many times, there is no known cause (1)
The cause may influence treatment
If you do learn why you have developed epilepsy, sometimes knowing the cause may help you understand it a bit better. It can also give you some idea about the type of seizures you may have, the type of medication or treatment best suited, the chances of seizures responding to treatment, and the possibility of seizures stopping by a certain age (2).
Reasons for developing epilepsy can be influenced by many things, and they can be sorted into these groups:
Table 1. ILAE classification of the epilepsies: position paper of the ILAE Commission for Classification and Terminology. Epilepsia,2017.
Types of epilepsy
We also talk about different types of epilepsy and sometimes these are grouped related to their causes. Epilepsy types can be grouped as below:
Table 2 Adapted from: The etiologic classification of epilepsy. Epilepsia 2011
References
- Shorvon, S. D. (2011). The etiologic classification of epilepsy. Epilepsia, 52(6), 1052-1057. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1528-1167.2011.03041.x
- Epilepsy Foundation USA. Accessed 28 Nov 2022 https://www.epilepsy.com/causes
- International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE). EpilepsyDiagnosis.Org. Accessed 28 Nov 2022. https://www.epilepsydiagnosis.org/aetiology/infectious-groupoverview.html
- Metabolic Disorders. Accessed 28 Nov 2022. https://medlineplus.gov/metabolicdisorders.html
- Scheffer, I. E., Berkovic, S., Capovilla, G., Connolly, M. B., French, J., Guilhoto, L., … & Zuberi, S. M. (2017). ILAE classification of the epilepsies: position paper of the ILAE Commission for Classification and Terminology. Epilepsia, 58(4), 512-5. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/epi.13709
- Hammans, S. R., (2009) Symptomatic Epilepsy Associated with Central Nervous System Insults. Practical Guide to Neurogenetics, Ch 4. Pg 38-48, W.B. Saunders https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-7506-5410-4.00004-9
- Mayo Clinic. Epilepsy. Accessed 28 Nov 2022. https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/epilepsy/symptoms-causes/syc-20350093
- Reflex Epilepsy. Accessed 28 Nov 2022 https://emedicine.medscape.com/article/1187259-overview#showall
