Epilepsy

Abstract

Epilepsy is an unusual disease. For most of the time the sufferer does not suffer at all except from apprehension, the expectation that he or she may have a fit.

The epileptic fit

The treatment of epileptic fits is a quite different subject from the treatment of epilepsy. Most epileptic fits require no active treatment whatever and provided that the patient is safeguarded from obvious hazards — falling into water and drowning or being run over by passing vehicles — then recovery will occur naturally and the patient can resume a normal life until next time. Occasionally there are complications, such as if a patient should vomit during an attack and from this point of view the treatment of the epileptic fit is not different from the management of unconscious patients in general.