Is epilepsy easy or difficult to treat in children? Even if the condition is stable, there are 2 keys to daily care
Epilepsy, also known as "horn wind", is the second most common disease after headache among neurological diseases in China. In the public's cognition, it is believed that it mostly occurs in adults. But in fact, the incidence of epilepsy in children is much higher than that in adults. On the occasion of the International Epilepsy Care Day, Family Doctor Online invited Zhou Xiangxue, Deputy Chief Physician of the Department of Neurology, East Hospital, First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, to talk to us about epilepsy in children.
Why are children prone to
The clinical incidence of epilepsy in children is indeed higher than that in adults, which is mainly related to the immaturity of the nervous system in children. At this time, if the nervous system is damaged by external factors, it is easy to cause childhood epilepsy. For example, the mother takes certain drugs during the perinatal period and pregnancy, hypoxia or dystocia during childbirth, and meningitis due to infection during the growth and development of children. , encephalitis, as well as metabolic diseases, poisoning, etc. can lead to the occurrence of epilepsy in children.
For the judgment of epilepsy in children, we generally observe the daily performance of children. Children with epilepsy generally have the following symptoms:
Children with seizures will have very typical episodic abnormalities in consciousness, movement and sensation, such as sudden disturbance of consciousness, manifested as transient dazedness, or sudden fainting; or episodic movement disorders , manifested as flexion of hands or straight feet, accompanied by clenching of teeth, biting tongue, and even incontinence, or spasms, etc.
Due to the repeated seizures of epilepsy, children will have inattention during the interictal period, and their development is different from that of children of the same age.
When abnormal performance is found in children, it is recommended that parents take their children to a specialist hospital for EEG examination in time to check for the possibility of epilepsy.
Whether epilepsy can be cured in children depends on the type of epilepsy and the treatment of the child. In general, epilepsy in children can be divided into three categories according to the etiology:
One is primary epilepsy, also known as idiopathic epilepsy. This type of epilepsy has no definite cause and usually occurs in children between the ages of six and sixteen;
The second is symptomatic epilepsy, also known as secondary epilepsy. Most of these types of epilepsy have specific etiologies, such as intracranial infection, metabolic encephalopathy, perinatal injury, etc.;
The third is cryptogenic epilepsy, that is, epilepsy that is highly suspected to be caused by a specific cause, but the cause has not yet been found.
Among them, idiopathic epilepsy and cryptogenic epilepsy can be cured after standard treatment. For secondary epilepsy, after the primary focus of epilepsy is completely controlled, some patients can also be cured by regular anti-epileptic treatment.
As mentioned above, after standardized treatment, many children's epilepsy symptoms can be stabilized, and they will not have seizures for a long time. At this point, keep the following points in mind:
Standardized antiepileptic treatment. Parents should not consider reducing or stopping the drug if they think that their child's epilepsy symptoms have been controlled. This idea is very wrong. Therefore, we must first emphasize the need for standardized anti-epileptic treatment. The principle of anti-epileptic treatment is to reduce the drug slowly. After the child has not had seizures at all for about two years, when no abnormal discharge can be seen on the EEG, the drug can be slowly reduced under the doctor's order. The overall time for reducing the drug may be as long as several months or even half a year. Medications cannot be stopped suddenly and changed suddenly, and this practice is often an important reason for the recurrence of epilepsy in children.
Take measures to prevent the recurrence of epilepsy in children and reduce the factors that induce epilepsy in life. If teenagers like to play exciting games and watch violent flashing films, these sound and light stimuli should be avoided. In addition, staying up late, excessive fatigue and long-term mental stress are also the reasons for the recurrence of epilepsy. Also, avoid certain foods and medicines. Such as nerve excitatory food, tea, coffee, cola, spicy food, greasy food, to avoid the recurrence of epilepsy.
Editor in charge: Luo Minxiao
Correspondent: He Xupeng