About Seizure Disorders

A seizure occurs when the brain’s elec­trical signaling discharges abnor­mally and exces­sively. The best known type of seizure is the gener­alized or tonic-clonic seizure which involves whole body convul­sions and temporary loss of consciousness. Other seizures are more limited in scope and may cause brief distur­bances of movement, consciousness, emotion, sensation or temporary inability to speak. These are known as partial or partial complex seizures. The symptoms of a seizure correlate directly with the area of the brain that is affected; a “partial seizure” usually affects only one side of the brain, while a “gener­alized seizure” involves both sides of the brain. Seizures may be caused or exac­er­bated by many medical condi­tions including congenital brain disorders, meta­bolic imbal­ances, and trau­matic brain injury.

A new onset or first seizure of any magnitude warrants imme­diate medical attention. If an indi­vidual expe­ri­ences repeated seizures over time, s/he may be diag­nosed with epilepsy. Treat­ments for seizure disorders include phar­ma­ceu­tical medication, dietary modi­fi­cation, lifestyle adjustment, and neurotherapy. All persons with repeated seizures or epilepsy should be under the care of a physician with special compe­tency in this area, usually a neurologist.

“It is particularly noteworthy that these results have been achieved in an extremely difficult subgroup of epilepsy patients, those with poorly controlled seizures who had proven unresponsive to pharmacological treatment.” - Sterman Egner

Treatment

The first study of neurotherapy in epilepsy was reported in 1972 by Sterman & Friar (1). Since then, a number of clinical studies from different labo­ra­tories have reported data on the efficacy of neuro­feedback training in epileptic patients. In their review of this liter­ature, Sterman and Egner (2) remark that “It is partic­u­larly note­worthy that these results have been achieved in an extremely difficult subgroup of epilepsy patients, those with poorly controlled seizures who had proven unre­sponsive to phar­ma­co­logical treatment.”

Neurotherapy is an effective, safe, and nonin­vasive way to improve inef­fi­ciencies and resolve imbal­ances in brain elec­trical activity. As such it may be useful in improving quality of life and func­tioning in epilepsy patients who have not achieved satis­factory seizure control at well tolerated levels of anti­con­vulsant medication.

neuroAgility offers a state of the art program beginning with qEEG brain mapping to identify dysfunc­tional brain elec­trical patterns. Neurotherapy may then be employed to re-balance and optimize these patterns. Patients may note important improvement in quality of life and cognitive func­tioning (3). At neuroAgility, our expec­tation and requirement is that all clients with epilepsy or other seizure disorders be under the care of their own neurol­ogist or other physician with expertise in epilepsy.

1– Sterman, M.B., Friar, L. (1972). Suppression of seizures in an epileptic following senso­ri­motor EEG feedback training. Elec­troen­cephalogr. Clin. Neuro­physiol. 33, 89–95.

2– M. Barry Sterman and Tobias Egner. Foun­dation and Practice of Neuro­feedback for the Treatment of Epilepsy. Applied Psychophys­i­ology and Biofeedback, Volume 31, Number 1, 21–35, DOI: 10.1007/s10484-006‑9002-x

3-Strehl,Leins,Goth, Klinger, Hinterberger,Birbaumer, Self-regulation of Slow Cortical Poten­tials: A New Treatment for Children With Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Pedi­atrics Vol. 118 No. 5 November 1, 2006 pp. e1530 –e1540