It’s a common brain disease characterized by the tendency to have recurrent seizures, which are sudden bursts of electrical activity in the brain that cause a disturbance in the way brain cells communicate with each other. There are many kinds of seizures, depending on which part and how much of the brain is affected. Currently there is no cure, and for many it is lifelong.

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Your goal is to protect the person from harm until full awareness returns. Different seizure types require different levels of intervention but generally, you will want to:

• Protect the person from injury, move any hard, sharp, or hot objects away and loosen any tight neck wear.
• Do not restrain the person or put anything in their mouth.
• Check the time so you know when the seizure started.
• Check for medical or emergency identification.
• If you know that the person has epilepsy or a seizure disorder continue to time the episode. If the seizure lasts longer than 5 minutes or repeats without full recovery, call 911.
• If the person does not have epilepsy or a seizure disorder, call 911.
• After the seizure subsides, roll the individual onto their side and clear vomit from their mouth if necessary.

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Medication is the most common and effective way to treat epilepsy; however, there are also non-drug treatments such as surgery, ketogenic diets, and nerve stimulation. It’s important to remember that everyone is different, and everyone responds differently, so a person with epilepsy should discuss their care with their physician before making any changes to their treatment. 

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Potential causes of death related to epilepsy can be from injuries or accidents during a seizure (such as drowning) or from complications related to status epilepticus. Other epilepsy-related deaths are categorized as SUDEP (Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy) if a person dies suddenly without a cause for death found at autopsy. A death is categorized as SUDEP when someone with epilepsy dies without any detectable reason and without warning. SUDEP can occur during the day but happens more often at night during sleep which makes it difficult to find out what happened.. The strongest risk factor for SUDEP is having frequent generalized tonic-clonic seizures. SUDEP accounts for up to 18% of all deaths in people with epilepsy. 

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They’re very closely related, but not quite the same. A seizure is the brief disruption in normal brain activity that interferes with brain function. Anyone can potentially have a seizure and it doesn’t automatically mean that they have epilepsy. Epilepsy is a brain disorder associated with an increased susceptibility to seizures.