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Epilepsy

Witnessing a Seizure: What Should You Do?

Summary & Participants

Witnessing a seizure can be scary, especially when the seizure occurs in someone you know. Do you know what to do when you see someone having a seizure?

Medically Reviewed On: June 13, 2008

Webcast Transcript

WILLIAM ROSENFELD, MD: It's a very common disorder. It occurs, on a conservative estimate, at least 1 percent of the population, maybe as high as 3 out of every 100 people could be defined as having epilepsy.

BLANCA VAZQUEZ, MD: Epilepsy can manifest at any time during the years. It can be seen in higher incidence in pediatric patients and in the elderly patient; the second and third decade can be seen at a lower frequency.

ANNOUNCER: So it turns out that epilepsy is more common than many people think. This neurologic condition originates in the brain and seizures can occur at any time.

WILLIAM ROSENFELD, MD: What happens with epilepsy is that there's some abnormal brain discharges. We all have millions normally functioning brain cells. What happens, think of it as telephone wires. If one or two wires are at fault, the telephone doesn't work. Well, that's the same thing that happens with epilepsy.

ANNOUNCER: People can experience seizures in many different ways.

WILLIAM ROSENFELD, MD: Sometimes the patient may just get a funny feeling in an arm or a leg or, or get some autonomic feelings, an urge to go the bathroom or have some visual or auditory hallucinations or, again, a funny feeling in an arm. And that is called a partial symptoms seizure, where's no alteration or loss of consciousness.

Many times the patient will have some lip-smacking or automatic movements or picking at their clothing, turning to one side or the other. But the patient does not have to fall to the ground. It's simply an alteration of consciousness.

ANNOUNCER: It may be disturbing to witness a friend or a loved one experiencing these kinds of seizures, but experts recommend staying calm and simply remaining with the person until the seizure has passed.

Staying calm may be tougher when witnessing the more dramatic generalized seizure.

WILLIAM ROSENFELD, MD: Many people are familiar with the grand mal or generalized tonic-clonic seizure because it's the most dramatic. It comes from the French, "big, bad seizure," where someone may fall to the ground and have generalized stiffening and jerking of the body.

ANNOUNCER: The urge is to help, but it's important to know what to do, and what not to do.

BLANCA VAZQUEZ, MD: The biggest misconception I find every day is how to approach a patient having a seizure. People talk about putting a spoon in their mouth or pulling their tongue. We don't recommend to do that. No one should have anything put inside their mouth while they're having a seizure.

The first aid for a seizure patient having a convulsion is to put them on the side to avoid the aspiration of their own secretions. No one should worry about the tongue being swallowed. This is something we teach a lot in the day to day office and the children in the schools and that because we have that myth behind it.

ANNOUNCER: Because seizures have so many ways in which they can appear, it often makes it difficult to pinpoint the core problem as epilepsy.

BLANCA VAZQUEZ, MD: Patients can have epilepsy for a long time and not be diagnosed. The symptoms can be so diverse, that is often until the patient has a big convulsion they don't get diagnosed by their neurologist.

ANNOUNCER: However once a diagnosis is made, with medication and information, people with epilepsy can have a long and full life.