what causes seizures in adults for the first time
Could people experience epilepsy and seizures for the first time in adulthood? Why do some adults suddenly have seizures even though they have no previous history? In the following, we are going to provide scientific and appropriate answers to the above questions in simple language.
If you are one of those people who want to know if people in adulthood can have seizures for the first time or not, we recommend that you read on.
Introduction
People at any age can have seizures. In other words, at any age and in any gender, a person may experience seizures.
But at what age a person has a seizure for the first time will have different symptoms and different reasons. People who have seizures for the first time in old age probably start having seizures at an older age due to an underlying disorder such as stroke, brain tumors, medication, poisoning, and other conditions.
Even sudden falls, severe concussions, and loss of consciousness can cause seizures in adults, but seizures do not occur in the same way in all people. Different types of seizures may occur in different people.
Seizures for the first time in adults
An adult who has no history of seizures and suddenly develops such suspected seizures should look for an underlying cause in this person. Elderly people who have a seizure for the first time without a history of seizures should consider the possibility of neurological diseases as one of the reasons that occurred with age and seizures have emerged as a secondary symptom of them.
In this case, if the underlying cause and disorder that caused the seizure is diagnosed and treated, people will no longer need to take anticonvulsant drugs in the long run.
Why do people get seizures in adulthood?
Why people experience seizures for the first time in unprecedented adulthood is not yet fully understood.
It can be said that in elderly people in particular, brain diseases, vascular diseases and disorders, as well as metabolic problems like diseases and disorders of the brain that occur for reasons such as infectious agents and toxins or kidney or liver failure are possible causes of seizures.
But what causes seizures in adults for the first time?
We said that seizures in adults are more secondary, it means that ,there is an underlying cause or a primary disorder that seizures are the manifestation of this primary underlying cause. Among the reasons that are associated with secondary seizures in adulthood are:
- Extensive and severe strokes
- Alzheimer's disease
- Abrupt cessation of alcoholism
- Fever
- Heatstroke
- Liver dysfunction and liver failure
- Vascular diseases
- Imbalance and changes in blood electrolytes such as magnesium deficiency, etc.
- Lower blood sugar
- Hyperglycemia
- Infections of the central nervous system, such as meningitis and encephalitis
- Kidney failure
- Stop using benzodiazepines
- Taking some medications
- Brain tumors
- Traumas to the brain
- Psychiatric disorders
In the following, we want to acquaint you with the most common causes that cause seizures for the first time in old age.
As you get older, fat plaques build up in the walls of your arteries, or you may become more prone to diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol than younger people.
Older people are usually less active, and stress and other psychological problems are more common. These problems increase the risk of stroke in these people. People who have had a stroke are 20 times more likely to have seizures in old age.
Bleeding strokes, that is, strokes caused by bleeding hairs, are one of the most common and important causes of seizures in adults. Of course, we must say that the risk of stroke due to heart bleeding is less against strokes without bleeding. The patients we mentioned will most often have these symptoms less than two weeks after the stroke and they often show these symptoms between twenty-four and forty-eight hours after the stroke, and only a small number of them have seizures.
We should say that late seizures may be related to clinical disorders in non-severe strokes.
- Taking simultaneous and different drugs in the elderly
With age and the onset of aging, many chronic diseases will be found in adults and these people take a lot of drugs at the same time. Concomitant use of the drug is one of the most common causes of seizures in adults for the first time, and doctors call it Polyfar Syndrome. This syndrome is one of the most common causes that you should look for in seizures in old age. Of course, in countries where the health care system is moving in the direction of by filing an electronic health record, they monitor patients and can prevent these syndromes.
The above are the first and second most common causes of seizures in adults for the first time. After these two items, the following items are in the next ranks, respectively:
- Sudden cessation of alcoholism
- Electrolyte changes in the blood, among others
- Central nervous system infections
- Heatstroke
- Convulsions following dementia
The most common type of dementia is Alzheimer's disease, the risk of seizures in the elderly and with these disorders increases eight to ten times. In these patients, the parts of the brain responsible for learning speech, logic, judgment, and memory are impaired. Dementias are commonly referred to as a progressive cognitive-behavioral disorder. In Alzheimer's patients in the advanced stages of the disease, the patient will not be able to recognize himself and those around him and is highly vulnerable and needs a lot of care.
We said that medications taken by an adult can be one of the causes of seizures. There are several medications that can trigger seizures.
Various studies have identified a variety of these drugs, such as a very common antibiotic used to treat tuberculosis called isoniazid, which was the first stimulant to cause seizures for the first time. Psychotropic drugs also cause the most brain stimulation for seizures.
Apart from these, bronchodilators used to treat asthma and patients with obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), as well as insulin and Lidocaine, can be effective in causing seizures for the first time.
Doctors say that almost all patients who are treated with psychiatric drugs for any reason are at higher risk than others for drug-induced seizures.
The risk of infection in some of these patients will increase with the following conditions:
- People who already have a history of seizures
- History of drug-induced seizures
- People from whom an abnormal brainwave behavior has been observed on an electroencephalogram
- A group of people who have had a head injury in the past or have had central nervous system disease
In patients who experience drug-induced seizures and whose electroencephalogram indicates abnormal waves, treatment with the drugs mentioned above is not recommended. This means that people who have abnormal problems in their brains before starting drug treatment should not use clozapine, chlorpheniramine and olanzapine in these people and should be replaced instead Treatment with lower doses of antipsychotic drugs such as risperidone, haloperidol and thioridazine.
An adult who has had a seizure for the first time in adulthood may have a history of brain trauma. People with brain injuries are more likely to have late seizures weeks, months, or even years later.
These people may experience seizures due to more stress than others. Many of these seizures may begin one to two years after the injury. As brain damage as well as increased intracranial pressure increase the likelihood of delayed seizures, it is best to follow up with these people. These patients should take precautionary measures and be treated more quickly if a problem occurs.
Your doctor may use preventative anticonvulsant medications depending on your condition. Of course, the duration of treatment depends on the patient's condition, the type of injury, as well as the results of the electroencephalogram.
If the patient does not have a seizure, the drug should be discontinued gradually and over a period of time as determined by the physician because the value of anticonvulsant drugs has not yet been established.
Heatstroke or hyperthermia is associated with a systemic inflammatory response that causes organ function to be impaired in a number of organs, i.e., multiple organs, and even lead to death. This type of heatstroke is very common as a cause of seizures in adults. Injectable benzodiazepines such as diazepam or lorazepam are used in these cases to prevent seizures in people with hyperthermia.
Doctors use the term hypomagnesemia when the amount of magnesium in the blood is less than normal, and a decrease in magnesium in the blood can cause irritation in the brain tissue and therefore cause seizures in people. Magnesium deficiency occurs due to some conditions such as inadequate diet and magnesium malabsorption or reduced magnesium absorption in the gastrointestinal tract and magnesium excretion occurs more in the kidneys.
Magnesium deficiency can lead to seizures and even cardiac arrest.
Should dental visits be performed in a controlled manner in people with seizures?
People with a history of seizures may have serious injuries to the jaw and face because some anticonvulsant drugs cause side effects such as gingivitis.
These people often do not go to the dentist or go to the emergency room, which is why caries or dental problems are common in these people. These people should include brushing and mouthwash in their plans to protect their teeth. It should be noted that patients who have experienced a more severe seizure should only see a dentist if the condition is urgent, as seizures are likely to recur.
What is epilepsy?
Your brain contains millions of nerve cells, called neurons, that naturally make a series of electrical waves that work together to make nerve cells communicate with each other. In a state of seizure, an electrical spark, such as lightning, is generated, causing a change in behavior or loss of consciousness. The location of this sudden electrical spark in your brain the symptoms of epilepsy and its different types vary depending on the location of this spark in the brain.
Of course, a seizure is not a mental illness but a neurological disorder, and the exact cause is not yet known. In epilepsy, abnormal brain activity is seen, causing seizures and periods of unusual behavior, unusual feelings, and sometimes loss of consciousness. It is interesting to note that anyone of any age can have seizures.
Men and women of different ethnicities, races and ages are affected by seizures. The symptoms of epilepsy and seizures are different.
What are the signs and symptoms of seizures?
Seizures have a very wide range of symptoms and manifestations. Epilepsy occurs in many people for a few seconds in the form of staring and staring.
In other people, epilepsy may be more severe and may be accompanied by muscle contractions and severe muscle and limb tremors. Having a seizure does not just mean having epilepsy. Doctors say they need at least two seizures to diagnose epilepsy.
Types of seizures
Doctors say that the main symptom of an epilepsy is seizures. There are two main types of seizures: generalized seizures and Concentrated seizures. Generalized seizures affect both halves of the brain and cause a very significant decrease in consciousness during an attack. There are six types of seizures. We will mention them below
- Abscess seizures
- Tonic convulsions
- Atonic seizures
- Colonic convulsions
- Myocolonic seizures
- Colonic tonic seizures
Concentrated and focal seizures affect only part of the brain. During focal seizures, a disturbance in brain activity begins with involvement of one part of the brain, and sometimes referred to as localized epilepsy.
What happens to a person during this attack depends on which part of the brain is affected and therefore we may have two types of local seizures depending on where the brain is affected.
The first category of simple local seizures
And the second category of complex local seizures
Symptoms of epilepsy
You can see the manifestations and signs of epilepsy below:
- Psychological symptoms such as fear and anxiety
- Uncontrollable movements
- Abnormal hand and leg movements
- Temporary confusion
- Stare at a point for a few seconds
- Loss of consciousness
What may trigger seizures?
These stimuli are more common in people with a history of seizures.
Some people say they have a specific trigger that triggers their seizures. Colds are one of the most common triggers. Other triggers include:
- Mental and job pressures and stresses
- Lack of sleep
- Allergies and food allergies
- Flashing light, for example, playing video games or working too much with smartphones
- Severe thirst
- And drug use
side effects
In adults and the elderly who have not had a history of seizures, seizures can have side effects. Seizures do not occur at specific times and the person is usually unaware of them, so conditions are created that are dangerous.
Falling is one of these complications. If a person falls during a seizure, there is a possibility of injury and fracture of the head and bones of the body. Another complication of drowning is that if a person has a seizure while swimming, there is a possibility of drowning. Adults experiencing seizures for the first time may have this experience behind the wheel of a car Certainly the occurrence of seizures while driving increases the likelihood of car accidents.
What are the signs and symptoms of epilepsy in adults?
Jumping movements of limbs that cannot be controlled:
- Fear occurs
- Having abnormal, sudden and unexplained anxiety
- Staring and dazzling eyes for a few seconds
- Confusion occurs in person
- Lack of consciousness and loss of consciousness and awareness around
What can cause seizures in adults?
- Stresses and psychological pressures
- Fatigue from work
- drug use
- Excessive thirst
- Food allergies
- And sleep deprivation
treatment
Treatment of seizures in adults means treatment after the onset of the first seizure in adults depends entirely on the cause of the seizures.
As we have said, the most common cause of stroke is cerebrovascular events. Also, drug interactions, heatstroke, and electrolyte disturbances can cause the first seizure in adults. Therefore, the first principle for successful treatment in adults is to find the cause behind this seizure.
Among the risk factors for epilepsy in adults are:
- Strokes
- Vascular disorders
- Anemia
- Brain infections
- Genetics and positive family history
- And increase the level of trauma to the brain
Concluding remarks
Because seizures for the first time in adulthood can be only a secondary sign of an underlying cause, Therefore, we strongly recommend that if you have adult and elderly relatives who experience one of the following symptoms, call the emergency room immediately or go to the nearest equipped medical center:
- Sudden stares
- Involuntary and uncontrollable movements of the arms and legs
- Loss of consciousness