By: Neha Kinariwalla
As you may have noticed by now, we have been building the mystery of epilepsy and slowly unraveling it. The series of subsequent blogs are the suspects of potential types of seizure a person can have. We start with the little one. The petit mal seizure.
At one time or another, I think we’ve all “zoned out” during class while trying to pay attention to the lesson. Imagine a seizure that can make you zone out no matter what you’re doing, even when you’re doing everything you can to keep focused. A petit mal seizure occurs most often in people who are under age 20, usually in children ages 6 to 12. Their duration doesn’t usually exceed 15 seconds. These seizures stem from an excessive discharge of electrical signals.
Now, a petit mal seizure is a condition that can take weeks or even months to be recognized. They sneak into the day, numerous times a day. Being more prominent in younger children, they can interfere drastically with school work. Sometimes teachers think that the child is not paying attention or misbehaving (Note to teachers… a holistic view of a child is the best view. These seizures are covert and often times, people who have the seizure aren’t even aware that they’ve had one to begin with. They can stop walking mid-walk. Or stop talking mid-talk (okay fine, mid-sentence makes more sense). But they won’t even realize it.
But it can also result in excess motor functioning including:
- No movement
- Hand fumbling
- Lip smacking
- Chewing
There is no identifiable cause for most absence seizures. (Idiopathic, remember?) But many children may be genetically predisposed to them. They may also be caused by an imbalance of neurotransmitters (those little chemical messengers that help nerve cells communicate).
References:
Mayo Clinic http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/petit-mal-seizure/DS00216
Medine Plus http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000696.htm