This is the fourth in a series of four articles about how to tell others about a child's epilepsy. If a child has epilepsy, parents will be confronted with the need to tell the parents of their child's friends about their child's epilepsy. This can be exceedingly difficult for a parent the first few times. Parents can make their world safer for…

In many respects epilepsy is as much a social disorder as it is a physical one. With epilepsy's long human history, many misconceptions have grown around the disorder. Those misconceptions have taken on a life of their own. Mistaken ideas that epilepsy is some form of evil possession, that it is a form of mental illness, that people with epilepsy…

In the April 2009 edition of "Exceptional Parent," Part One of this series explored why, for their own emotional well-being, it is so important for parents to tell others about their or their child's epilepsy. This month's installment will discuss the basics of how to reveal epilepsy to others, including some additional advantages one receives in…

Epilepsy has one of the worst social outcomes for child development of the common disabilities. For most children, epilepsy is not nearly the physical challenge that many other chronic health disorders are. The problem in raising a child with epilepsy is much more emotional and social. In this first part of a three-part article series, the author…

Temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) is often accompanied by interictal behavioral abnormalities, such as fear and memory impairment. To identify possible underlying substrates, we analyzed long-term synaptic plasticity in two relevant brain regions, the lateral amygdala (LA) and the CA1 region of the hippocampus, in the kindling model of epilepsy. Wistar…

Analysis of completed questionnaires from 192 individuals with newly diagnosed epilepsy found that half the sample had experienced only 3 seizures or less since onset, but 91% reported at least some adjustment problems, most frequently concerning fear of seizures, fear of stigma in employment, or problems with accepting the diagnosis. (DB)

This guide provides information on seizures in students with traumatic brain injury (TBI) and offers guidelines for classroom management. First, a classification system for seizures is presented with specific types of seizures explained. Post-traumatic seizures are specifically addressed as is the importance of seizure prevention when possible.…