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There are about fifty-million people worldwide who have epilepsy. Sometimes the condition is severe, but many lead mostly normal lives, suffering only occasional seizures. Nevertheless, most people with epilepsy are forbidden from driving automobiles or flying aircraft due to fear that a seizure–no matter how rare–can cause an accident, and the liability lawyers will be set loose. Despite the number of people who suffer epilepsy, however, it seems the public at large cannot be taught how to effectively help a person who has a seizure.
As is too common, when humans are unable or unwilling to care for fellow humans, we find that our canine friends are up to the task. Dogs trained to aid people with epilepsy are rare because they have to be absolutely perfect in their responses and reliability. Not only can these Seizure Response Dogs–or more commonly just called “Seizure Dogs”–help and protect a person during and after a seizure, but sometimes are able to detect when a seizure is about to happen and offer warning.
Dogs have been trained to help people through seizures since the 1970s, but some dogs have done so spontaneously for much longer. On their own, some dogs have been known to lie down beside a person undergoing seizure, or to lick a person’s face until they regain cognition. (Some dogs have been known to panic through their owner’s seizure–even die of the stress.) Trainers began to take advantage of a dog’s tendency to help by training dogs to specific responses. Some dogs are trained to alert people around in the event of a seizure; this is particularly useful in the care of children where the dog can alert other family members of the situation. Dogs can guide a person who has brief episodes of spasms and loss of cognition—known as “absence seizures”—and prevent them from running into things. There are even instances of dogs trained to call 911 on a specialized phone when needed.
The possibility of using trained dogs to warn of an imminent seizure didn’t arise until the mid-1980s when people began to report that their dogs seemed prescient of seizures. At the 1998 National Conference of the Epilepsy Foundation Dr Roger Reep presented the results of a study, which said, “reports of seizure-alerting behavior in dogs should be viewed as credible, but with caution.” One of the most surprising facets of finding that dogs could predict a seizure was that it seemed that without any training the dog would signal that the seizure was coming by barking, whining, pacing, or the usual dog-things; there is at least one instance of a dog bringing his owner pillows, and another where a dog would grab his owner’s pants and pull him to lay on the ground. Dogs trained to help a person in the aftermath of a seizure show these predicting traits more often than dogs without training.
Although there are numerous examples of dogs predicting seizures, no one is really sure how they do it. The theories vary from the idea that patients have unconscious “tells”, like an eyelid flutter or a twitchy finger, to olfactory detection of subtle changes in body chemistry. However they’re doing it, these sensitive dogs have been found to predict seizures with 90% accuracy and reliability, regardless of their owner’s gender, age, race, or type of seizure.
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I guess I get to say it. Woot! First!
At first, I thought this article was going to be about the Drug Seizure dogs that work for US Customs and Border Protection, haha. I’ve never heard of these particular dogs. Do you have any kind of stats on them, like how many there are in the US, or how many per number of people that have epilepsy, etc.? It would be interesting to know just how rare they are.
Three cheers for man’s best friend! (And Santa’s Little Helper ;) )
I can picture it: Having a seizure while a St. Bernard licks your face with slobbery kisses.
I saw a similar story on a new documentary show several years ago. A woman who was a college student had epilepsy and her dog would lead her inside a building when she was about to have a seizure so she wouldn’t fall on the pavement and hurt herself.
Somehow I don’t think Santa’s Little Helper would be very useful as a seizure dog though…
Melon Head said: “I can picture it: Having a seizure while a St. Bernard licks your face with slobbery kisses.”
Ehhe. I don’t think you’d be paying too much attention to the dog during a seizure. I guess it’s cool to have dogs like that, although there are medications out now to control most conditions that cause seizures.
Well I can imagine it’s hard to train to come up with a way to train dogs for something like this, although there are a few “chemicals” known to induce seizures.
Btw,I don’t have a dog right now, but when I was a kid, we had a dozen or so dogs (+ one cat).
DI article Jason.
“Despite the number of people who suffer epilepsy, however, it seems the public at large cannot be taught how to effectively help a person who has a seizure.”
So how do you effectively help a person who has a seizure? I know you’re supposed to lay the person on the floor and loosen his/her tie (if applicable). What else?
http://health.msn.com/encyclopedia/healthtopics/articlepage.aspx?cp-documentid=100078958
Anyway, training dogs for such a purpose is not as easy as getting it to find drugs or play tricks. Seizures come in many ways, I guess, and the only positive response from a dog would probably be by means of observation. So it comes down to human-pet relationship, I suppose.
Chad Cloman said: “So how do you effectively help a person who has a seizure? I know you’re supposed to lay the person on the floor and loosen his/her tie (if applicable). What else?”
As a first aid instructor and former epileptic, I’ll field this question… Most of the following are for Grand Mal (violent) seizures, you can adapt some for Petite Mal (minor and “absense” seizures) if common sense tells you it will apply there as well.
If possible, you want to help the person to lie down, keeping your own safety in mind as you do this, as some types of seizures can be quite violent and others can pass undeteced even by the person having them. Sometimes the victim is aware of certain sensations that preced the episode and knows it is about to strike. You want to keep obstacles that might injure the person away, as a collision between a seizing person and sharp/hard inanimate objects can leave lasting injuries. If possible, put a pillow under their head to minimize any injury if they strike their head upon the floor. Keep other people away, and under no circumstances allow people to do things like trying to stick a wallet into the victim’s mouth (some well-meaning people are under the misconception that someone having a seizure needs this to keep them from biting their tongue off… attempting to put anything in their mouth can cost them a finger and may injure the seizure victim and/or the wallet (how thick a steak can you bite through with only a little effort?)
Until the seizure is over, the only contact you should even consider is the minimum necessary to keep the victim from injury – a person seizing can be much stronger than normal, just lacking coordination. After the seizure ask the victim the following: 1) Are you all right? 2) What is your name? 3) Where are you? 4) What day is it? 5) What were you doing when the seizure struck?
The reason for the questions is to determine the level of conciousness of the victim… if they seem confused about where they are, who they are or what has happened you should consider calling 911 for medical attention: I found out the hard way that seizures can cause injury and death of brain tissue similar to a stroke, and if they have struck their head while seizing they could have other serious injuries as well.
As for loosening their tie, that is one of the things they recommend for someone suspected of having a heart attack (make them comfortable). You don’t want to get close enough to someone having a violent seizure to try loosening their tie. That would be like swimming up to a drowning person without being trained how to get away from them when they grab you – most drownings are double drownings because the drowning person was able to get their hands on someone nearby.
This is definitely damn interesting. I never knew!! Although I might question the validity of the studies showing prescience in the dogs – how do we know the barking didn’t precipitate or at least exacerbate the situation?
Drakvil said: “After the seizure ask the victim the following: 1) Are you all right? 2) What is your name? 3) Where are you? 4) What day is it? 5) What were you doing when the seizure struck?”
I had two rather violent attacks a couple months ago, now I’m on meds that work fine (haven’t had any attacks since).
But personally I think “Are you all right?” isn’t enough, you might want to go for “How many fingers am I holding up?” and other tests of the senses. Also, make sure you have a baggy ready in case of a sudden wave of vommit (shortly after my first attack I just threw up all of a sudden and made a mess of myself and the floor)
It happens more often than you’d think, about one in a hundred people has had multiple attacks and thus is an epileptic, and then theres a lot of people that have once had an attack but no more (its apperantly not uncommon that in the pubescent years, something in the brain just goes haywire at random even though there’s nothing really wrong with it) When I had my first attack, they told me that there was a 60% chance that it wasn’t going to happen again.
Drakvil
Thank you, I may never need this info but would rather have some idea of what to do than be totally ignorant.
Drakvil has so much wisdom to share with all of us on any subject…I just can’t get enough from his 2000 word posts…
…and now, the world is going to the dogs!
Information rules…information is power! Does it really matter how many words it takes to make a point?
Damn interesting article once again. Seems to me that I too ahve seen similar documentaries on Discovery Channel or maybe Animal Planet. There is something about human chemistry that dogs can detect long before humans are aware of an impending problem whether that be a seizure, heart attack or some other life threatening ailment.
To have such a caretaker is most precious and must truly be a sad experience when the animal has lived out it’s life. They may go to the great doggy paradise in the sky, but their spirit lives on.
A couple months ago there was an insert in my apartment complex’s monthly newsletter explaining that although they do not allow dogs, a man with seizures and his wife were moving in with their Collie, his seizure dog. I’d never heard of it before, but the dog is great with everyone. I’m sure the apt. complex can’t discriminate against him.
When I first saw the title I thought that it’s the dogs that are getting seizures. Ouch ;)
Melon Head said: “I can picture it: Having a seizure while a St. Bernard licks your face with slobbery kisses.”
I am one of the people in this world who have epilepsy. Wouldn’t bother me at all to wake up from a seizure with a big slobbery wet kiss from a dog. At least I would know I hadn’t aspirated from my own vomit and had died, eh?
This is why I’m a big proponent of treating dogs with respect. In many aspects, dogs are superior to human beings and can detect things that even the most sophisticated machines cannot detect. So next time you see a dog, pat it on his/her back, they deserve it. ;-)
Chad Cloman said: “So how do you effectively help a person who has a seizure? I know you’re supposed to lay the person on the floor and loosen his/her tie (if applicable). What else?”
A couple people have already answered this, but as someone with a seizure disorder, I think that not enough people really understand what to do, so I’m going to take my own stab at it.
The two most important things: (1) You can’t stop it, so don’t even try…so (2) Try to make sure the person doesn’t hurt him/herself too badly.
When most people think of seizures, they think of what used to be called “grand mal” seizures (now generally referred to as “tonic-clonic” seizures). In this type of seizure, the person loses consciousness and their entire body convulses. Assuming that the person wasn’t, e.g., driving or climbing a ladder at the time, these aren’t nearly as dangerous as they look. If the person is in danger of hitting his/her head on something, try to put something soft in between. There’s a good chance that the person will turn blue (I’ve been told that my entire face has turned blue – not just a blue tint, but completely blue). This does not mean the person is swallowing their tongue, so don’t go sticking your finger in their mouth (I bit a well-meaning boss’s finger hard enough to draw blood). The only thing I’m aware of that can really be dangerous is that, if the person is lying on their back and vomits, they may choke, so if the person is face up, it’s a good idea to try to roll them onto their side. (Again, please watch the head).
When I came out of my seizures, I was incredibly dopey, operating on autopilot. The first time, I had been picked up by the ambulance, taken to the hospital, and had been lying in bed with an IV in my arm for a good 15+ minutes before I had the good sense to wonder what was going on. Don’t be too surprised if the person isn’t firing on all cylinders when they wake up, and don’t let them do anything stupid.
If you’re at all concerned, it doesn’t hurt to call 911. At least around here (Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada), the ambulance will come down and the paramedics will happily check you out, and there’s only a fee if you actually get in the ambulance and get taken to the hospital (and hey, my health insurance covers that anyway).
Smaller seizures, which used to be known under the catch-all name “petite mal”, come in all sorts of varieties. In some, the person remains conscious, in others, they may look fine but are actually completely unaware of their surroundings. I don’t know as much about these, since I don’t have them myself, but the same general rules apply: Make sure the person isn’t going to hurt themselves, and wait it out.
Side note: In the words of my neurologist: “If you’re lucky, we’ll never know what’s causing your seizures.” It turns out that any cause that can be detected by tests is a Very Bad Thing (such as a brain tumour). He suggested that my seizures are probably caused by a very small scar in my brain somewhere, too small to be seen even on an MRI, and every once in a while, for no obvious reason, it gets set off. So yes, my doctor thinks I’m brain damaged :-)
I know very little about epilepsy. It sounds scary. I appreciate the info people.
Culvan said: “So yes, my doctor thinks I’m brain damaged :-)”
Great review of what to do during an episode…in particular, roll siezure victims on their side while cushioning the head. In other words, keep victims from hurting themselves.
btw…didn’t you mean…”dain bramaged”? Just kiddin…but thanks much for the advice.
My mom is a former RN and current middle school teacher. Last week a child at her school collapsed in a fit of seizures; not just one, but an entire series one after the other. Since she’d had experience with epileptic fits she was able to help him but she told me there really is very little you can do for the person while the seizures are actually occurring. Afterwards, however, he’d stopped breathing and his heart had stopped, so she had to give him CPR, which is arguably the most important medical procedure any person can perform. I think that’s an important thing to know, should you ever find yourself in this situation.
The kid went to the hospital in critical condition, but his heart was beating and he was breathing with a respirator. Since last week his condition has been upgraded to fair, so it looks like he will be okay and it does not look like he is suffering from any brain damage.
Culvan said: “A couple people have already answered this, but as someone with a seizure disorder, I think that not enough people really understand what to do, so I’m going to take my own stab at it.
…
When most people think of seizures, they think of what used to be called “grand mal” seizures (now generally referred to as “tonic-clonic” seizures). In this type of seizure, the person loses consciousness and their entire body convulses.
…
Smaller seizures, which used to be known under the catch-all name “petite mal”, come in all sorts of varieties.
…
Side note: In the words of my neurologist: “If you’re lucky, we’ll never know what’s causing your seizures.” “
Culvan: Thank you for sharing your experience, I know not everyone is comfortable talking about those kind of issues.
The form I had was the Petite mal variety called “Partial Complex”, and very few people could notice when I had them. The cause was a car running into me and fracturing my skull, resulting in a small scar in the brain opposite of the fracture site.
My next door neighbor was taken to the hospital a few weeks ago because of a very strong seizure (she had gone off her meds for the last part of her pregnancy to protect the child from the side effects and had not returned to her full dosage since delivering last month) that left her unable to recognize her sister in the minutes after the seizure. She was all right later, but really out of it immediately following the seizure.
I think this is an interesting article. However, I have to challenge the assertion that “most people with epilepsy are forbidden from driving automobiles”. This fails to take note of the fact that seizures can range from so mild as to be unnoticeable by others to the severe, convulsive seizures people without experience with epilepsy mostly envision. I have the mild kind and have no restrictions on my license. This website provides more info about the various state laws regarding driving and epilepsy. http://www.epilepsy.com/epilepsy/social_driving.html. Among other facts, it notes that the relevant rules are becoming more liberal in recent years. I think it’s important to avoid perpetuating the idea that epilepsy is a uniform or necessarily noticeable or severe condition.
“(Some dogs have been known to panic through their owner’s seizure–even die of the stress.) “
Do you have a cite for this claim?
The cause of my attacks and more regular small shocks (my hand tensing up slightly and then releasing immediatly after, stuff like that) is unknown. I do have a sac of fluid of some sort in my head, a leftover from birth, but according to my neurologist, that has absolutely nothing to do with it.
The human brain is amazingly complex. There is still quite a lot of it that we don’t understand. The part of the medical world that revives around it works in ways not like the rest of the medical world at all. Where in most medical fields, we know exactly what is happening and can choose the correct treatment by looking at the details of the case, where in the neurological field its a lot of “Well, your case seems to be similar to those right there. In those cases right there, a Carbamazepine treatment did the job. Lets see if it does the job in your case.”.
On a sidenote, Carbamazepine is the shit I used to be on, but it gave me a rather annoying rash, so now I’m on Sodium Valproate.
Dogs are amazing animals. They give and need more affection than people do. Their behavior exemplifies the best ‘human’ traits far more than many people do, including forgiveness, faithfulness, playfulness, empathy and patience.
To some of us this is a story about seizures. To me it is a story about dogs. We all see things differently, don’t we?
I worked at a children’s center a few years ago and though a lot of the kids that were there were prone to seizures, I had one imparticular who would seize midsentence, mildy convulse, actually it was rather like having the shakes, then lift her head up after 15 seconds of this and go right back to where she was in her sentence. She did this on bad days in spurts of 5 an hour, sometimes more. Another girl had them only when
she slept. Many people equipped with the right meds would follow a seizure with phenobarbitol or a good dose of valium to aid in relieving the nerves of stressors. Some violent seizure sufferers even get a good
10 mg dose of gelled diazepam rectally to get the body to relax ASAP and help prevent a recurrent episode.
I did have an eplileptic dog as well. Normally he was fine, but every once in awhile he would seize, and would then need to just lay for a couple hours, regain his strength. Unfortunately he dug a hole under the fence one day and was scooped up by the puppy police; he had a seizure while in custody and they put him to sleep just 10 minutes before we got there to pick him up. They said when they have animals that do stuff like that they have to put them to sleep. Broke my heart, he was a great dog!
There are tons of drugs out there to treat epilepsy, valproic acid, BZD’s, carbamazepine, phenytoin, tegretol (which is just brand name carbamazepine), Dilantin just to name a few, all coming in an array of dosages to aid people with their disorder. Oh and when I worked at a pharmacy for a couple years, I worked with three girls who all had epilepsy but all had driver’s licenses and drove all the time. I would certainly hope they didn’t attempt to fly an airplane though.
Good article!
Having epilepsy isn’t what causes you to lose your license – doctors are required by law to report incidents of seizures in their patients to the the DMV (at least in California). The DMV is given by state law in CA absolute authority to suspend or revoke licenses under these conditions without review from any medical oversight. Whenever someone has a seizure and it is reported to the DMV, the DMV will suspend that person’s license (whenever they get around to sifting through their paperwork) for a minimum of 6 months up to as long as they freaking feel like it. The suspension usually ends when the person has been under a medical regimen to control the episodes and has gone for at least 6 months without suffering an attack. The patient then has to have DMV forms filled out by their doctor verifying that no more seizures have occured every 6 months for several years afterwards. I was unlucky to develop a tolerance for the different meds they used in an attempt to control my seizures, and I would lose my license about every year or two until I had the cause of the seizures surgically removed – following that surgery was the last time I lost my license (evidently brain surgery is also cause enough for the DMV to suspend your license).
I remember seeing a special on the Discovery Channel about dogs that were able to detect tumors in people… they would constantly, insistantly sniff at spots on their owners and others that, upon proper medical scans, would turn out to have cancer within them (the example I remember was a tumor in the owner’s thigh).
to back up the tumor aspect, here are some links related:
http://www.usaweekend.com/05_issues/050828/050828healthsmart.html
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/06/01/CM38469.DTL
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/01/060106002944.htm
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/04300/401479.stm
I have heard that persons with epilepsy are often blessed with an “aura” or prelude to their seizures and learn to head for the ground to avoid injuries from falling. One such person told me that they tasted a taste like a penny (not one of the newer ones that have no copper in them, but the old ‘wheatstraw’ pennies). The phenomena, whatever they are, may be detectable with an acute sense of smell, thus allowing dogs to do the early detection business. It seems reasonable to me that some of the “auras” have not been identified or the connection has not been made in the minds of the person with epilepsy, even though dogs may have figured it out as at least a peculiarity outside the norm. Just an observation. We shouldn’t go for ESP until we have completely ruled out SENSORY out of the equation, even if we cannot sense (or make sense of) the sensation.
cornerpocket said: “I have heard that persons with epilepsy are often blessed with an “aura” or prelude to their seizures and learn to head for the ground to avoid injuries from falling. One such person told me that they tasted a taste like a penny (not one of the newer ones that have no copper in them, but the old ‘wheatstraw’ pennies). The phenomena, whatever they are, may be detectable with an acute sense of smell, thus allowing dogs to do the early detection business. It seems reasonable to me that some of the “auras” have not been identified or the connection has not been made in the minds of the person with epilepsy, even though dogs may have figured it out as at least a peculiarity outside the norm. Just an observation. We shouldn’t go for ESP until we have completely ruled out SENSORY out of the equation, even if we cannot sense (or make sense of) the sensation.”
At my second attack, I did indeed feel rather odd right before it, but I didn’t recognize it. Eitherway it’s not quite as precise like that with me. I do indeed feel it, but I can’t really explain what or how it feels.
In my state, doctors only report seizures that result in a loss of consciousness. Except for once (when I was switching medications), I have never lost consciousness with my seizures. I have even had them while driving, with no ill effects. Mine merely make me feel tingly and “yucky.” With medication, I don’t have any seizures. Anyway, I want to dispell the idea that all seizures involve loss of consciousness, let alone loss of driving privileges. There are many different causes and variations, so they can’t be lumped together.
I do have an aura that involves something like a smell. However, my doctor says that this is something like my neurons backfiring in some way that is interpreted as an odor. I don’t believe a dog could detect something like that. Perhaps they could detect a change in behavior, heart rate, perspiration, etc.
wow. cool info. thanks people. this’ll come in handy.
This is so Baader-Meinhof (https://www.damninteresting.com/?p=417) !
Just a few days ago one of the residents in my home had a seizure and our house puppy was all over her, whining and pawing for several minutes before the seiz and stayed laying by her side for several minutes after.
This pup is only 8 months old,our best guess is he’s a mix of Dobie and Dalmation or black Lab.
We had been planning to get him trained as a therapy dog because of his extremely sweet and gental nature and innate ability to draw out the shyest of the mentally ill. Then he up and displayed this amazing talent, even going so far as to come tell me (The house Momma) that some thing was wrong. Wow! Damned Interesting Alan! I swear, I’m going to post a link to this site in all my email signatures.
Does anyone know where these therapy dog training centers are, and how I could get in touch with one?
Never mind, I found links on the Nat. Geo. site. Thank you again! Will let you all know what happens. :)
This is late but maybe it will help somebody. My wife has had epilepsy since she was eight. She is now fifty-one. She averages six petite-mal seizures a month. By the way, please don’t call them “fits”, this is offensive. We married at 30 and a year later she gave birth to our only child. She is perfectly “normal”, epilepsy is not hereditary except for a very rare form. My daughter has wanted a dog for years, my wife did not (she dislikes dogs), but three years ago I bought a 6 month old Maltese that had been abused by the previous owners and their kids. We started noticing that Daisy would cling to my wife before she had a seizure. This is unusual because the dog knows my wife is not a “dog lover”. Many times this occurs hours before a seizure happens. A couple of weeks ago she let us know five hours before it happened that she would have a seizure. She had a bad grand-mal at midnight. Daisy is a great seizure detection dog. The worst thing is that now that she is a service dog, people refuse to believe us. Maltese dogs are small, cute, and very much “people” dogs. She wears her vest when we go into businesses and people ask what she “does”. When we explain, they many times say “riiiiiiiiight” and wink like we are sneaking a pet in. Please respect people’s service animals. Don’t touch them until you ask permission. A trained seizure detection dog can cost $10,000. With all of the discrimination my wife has had to tolerate because of her epilepsy, letting her take her seizure dog into businesses is small compensation. And by the way, in the U.S. it’s federal law!
Some very good advice regarding the treatment of seizures above. Just some minor points to add:
– Most seizures are over relatively quickly. Most last less than a minute. However some seizures (especially among the elderly) might last for several hours if not treated.
– Any seizure that lasts more than a minute is plenty reason to call a doctor!
– Even after short seizures, the person should be advised to see a doctor, if he isn’t already familiar with the condition.
– Having a seizure is exhausting. Many people slip into unconsciousness after a longer seizure. In this case it is important to make sure that person can breathe unobstructedly. Also call a doctor!
Basically you can’t go wrong calling a doctor ;-)
I wonder if dogs have their seizure sensing ability from the fact that dogs get epilepsy themselves?
Though I don’t have pearls of wisdome to share like most other commenters on this thread. When I originally opened this post, I thought it would about dogs who get seizures, which got me musing on my own experiences.
I have had German Shepherds all my life (not that long, I’m only 24) and I’ve already lived with 3 dogs that have had epilepsy. One was fairly mild, she had epilepsy from a very young puppy, and every now and then she would get ‘stuck’where she stood but then quickly wear off. While the one who unfortunately got the worst seizures did not start having them until ‘adulthood’ (about 3 years old). Over a very short period of time the seizures got more violent and lasted longer until one morning she had a seizure so bad she died of exhaustion before we could get her to the vet.
Just a point of curiosity, does anyone know how many other species also get epilepsy?
Dogs can apparently smell certain kinds of cancer through various means.
I also have epilepsy and I have the petite mal, absence seizures, which are not rare. I have been to many neurologists who have told me that epilepsy IS/CAN BE hereditary. I was told that by having children, it will up their percentage of possibly having seizures. My 2 year old daughter just last month had a seizure, we hope that she will not become epileptic in nature and hope it was just a “fluke”.
I would like to add a little information on how to help a person having a seizure. I know in my kind of seizures I appear normal, but I have no idea what is going on around me. I also occasionally have seizures where I will convulse on one side or the other of the body. After the seizures I am usually fuzzy and unable to grasp where I am and would not be able to answer the questions someone mentioned above. Don’t be alarmed if someone can’t start answering questions right after they stop seizing, it is very rare where a person can be logic after their brain just went haywire.
I did not say that there is no epilepsy that is hereditary, but that it is RARE. The facts are that less than 1% of epilepsy is the hereditary type, which makes it a rare form. Most epilepsy is caused by injury to the head and that should make people stop and realize that all people can be at risk for getting epilepsy. Even head injuries years old have brought on epilepsy later. Our OB/GYN for my wife’s high risk pregnancy pointed out that she would not pass on the disease to her child because her epilepsy was caused by spinal meningitis, not the rare hereditary form. Our child had the same chance of getting epilepsy as a child born to parents who didn’t have epilepsy. The fact the he was rated in the top 10 high risk OB/GYNs in the United States and taught at a major university hospital makes me believe he knows what he is talking about.
My epilepsy was caused by a head on car accident and didn’t start till 7 years after the fact. I have NO family history of it, was told by a national university doctor that it is. But it doesn’t matter. We will just have to respectfully agree to disagree.
Useful links about epilepsy being hereditary:
http://www.epilepsy.dk/Handbook/Hereditary-uk.asp
http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/diseases/facts/epilepsycauses.htm
http://www.epilepsyfoundation.org/about/types/causes/genetics.cfm
“I have epilepsy. Is my child likely to have seizures, too?
Certain types of epilepsy do seem to run in families. Some studies have shown that the risk of epilepsy in brothers, sisters and children of people with seizure disorders ranges from 4-8% (that is, between about 1 in 25 and about 1 in 12). The risk in the general population is about 1-2% (between 1 in 100 and 1 in 50). However, it’s important to remember that although the risk is higher than in the general population, most people with epilepsy do not have any relatives with seizures, and the great majority of parents with epilepsy do not have children with epilepsy.
Which types of epilepsy are most likely to be inherited?
People who have a generalized epilepsy (one where the EEG pattern shows both sides of the brain involved at the beginning of a seizure) seem somewhat more likely to have other family members with seizures than those with a localization-related epilepsy (also called partial or focal, where the EEG pattern shows seizures beginning in a single area of the brain). Parents with a history of generalized absence (childhood petit mal) seizures are more likely to have children with the same condition than those with other generalized seizures or focal seizures.”
Anyways the article was about dogs, and it was excellent. It’s awesome that dogs can be trained to help out with seizures and have met many people through support groups that have them. They can truly work wonders!
The articles quoted bear out what I’m saying. That is hereditary epilepsy is rare, and if you have epilepsy caused by a head injury, or some other non-hereditary form, the chances of your child getting it is virtually the same as any other person in the population. The last two the sentences below, taken from those sources, say it all.
“Epilepsy is not a single disorder, but a collection of many disorders that all have in common the tendency to cause a person to have seizures. When individual characteristics are caused by single genes, they are called “simple” genetic traits. Only a few rare types of epilepsy are caused by alterations in single genes. Most seem to be caused by a complex interaction among multiple genes and environmental influences.”
By environmental influences they mean a head injury, spinal meningitis etc. People who have non-hereditary epilepsy should not be afraid to have children. This is not to say it is not possible to bear a child that has epilepsy. A child can be born that has epilepsy to parents not having the disease, just as easily as one born with epilepsy to a parent that has the disease. The odds are the same if you discount heredity epilepsy, which is, by all the articles you quoted above, rare. Check with a qualified high-risk OB/GYN specializing in epileptic mothers as we did. Your fears will be put to rest as ours were. The worst risk is in the fact that the mother must stay on her epilepsy medications which doubles the rate of birth defects from a 3% national average to 6%. Still a small risk for those who want children.
As far as the seizure detection dogs go, if you call the epilepsy foundation, as I did, and they will tell you that they don’t endorse them. Dogs are not easily trained to detect seizures in advance. It is estimated that 90% of seizure detection dogs are purchased as pets and later show signs of detecting seizures on their own. If you reward them when the seizure is over, this will encourage their prediction abilities. Because most of these dogs are trained at home, the number of dogs who detect seizures in advance is hard to say. Many people get them confused with seizure response dogs. If you are considering the purchase of a trained seizure detection dog, be careful. There are lots of people out there making outlandish claims with nothing to back them up.
Why is it that someone with Epileptic seizures gets help from, for example, a dog. But someone with Psuedo Seizures gets no help at all. I have it, have had it sence I was about 5, that was over 15 years ago. I know no different, the doctors are trying to help, and well they are. But at the same time I am treated like someone with Epileptic Seizures, yet I can’t find any type of help like an assistant dog. I just am having a hard time understanding that one. Oh and if you are wondering I got the Psuedo Seizures from aquired brain damage. Well if you got any type of suggestions or info that would be awsome. :S
I have a history of having the Petite Mal “absent seizures” and I’m on meds for it now. The only thing is, that every once in a while I forget to take them (morning dose one day for example). Anyway, One day, when i forgot to take my A.M. meds, I had a seizure. Grand Mal from what my daughter and husband tell me. I was lucky enough to have her next to me at the time but most of the time I see her very little and my husband and I are on such opposite schedules that I see him very little so I can’t necessarily depend on them telling me if I have one. The one time I had one was NOT the only time I’ve forgotten to take my meds, As much as I’d like it to make me remember each morning. (I have several alarms and a to go bottle and sometimes still forget- get busy and forget again when it becomes available again and such, or worse, forget until it’s where they tell you don’t take it if it’s too close to your next dose.
Anyway, due to the fact that I am mostly without someone to tell me and that I never know when one’s about to happen, I was looking into getting a service dog. I am trying to figure out how to work it out and I got to the website ada.gov and gives a lot of information, however, it doesn’t say anything about if you’re able to have one or not While on meds, or after the 6 month mark where you’re able to drive again but still have no clue if/when you’re gonna have one. Anybody have any answers or websites.. any kind of information that may be helpful to this?
I favor the idea of the dog being able to smell changes in the human body’s chemistry.