Once it has been decided that what happened to you was, in all probability, a seizure, your doctor will want to discover whether it was due to some underlying cause that should be treated, and whether the fits are likely to recur.
It is possible that if this is your first fit the doctor may adopt a ‘wait and see’ policy. But they may – and certainly if you have had one or more previous attacks, they will – refer you to a neurologist.
Doctors, like gardeners, have their own fields of expertise. Medicine moves so fast nowadays that it is virtually impossible for a GP to be up to date with every new development in every field of medicine. Unless your GP has a special interest in epilepsy it is quite possible that their ideas about treating the condition may not be right up at the frontier of current thinking.Your GP may, for example, want to start treating you without referring you for further investigations. It is not unheard of for a GP to say to a patient, ‘You’ve got epilepsy. Go away and keep taking these tablets.’
This used to be normal practice because it used to be thought that the cause of epilepsy was unimportant. Indeed, in most cases it was believed that there was no cause to be found, and that most instances of epilepsy were ‘idiopathic’, that is, that there was no known cause for them. Investigations were pointless because so far as treatment was concerned the end result was much the same: ‘Keep on taking the tablets.’
Things are rather different now. New methods of imaging the brain have been developed which can produce a highly detailed picture of our most complex organ. The use of these new methods has shown one thing very clearly, and that is that epilepsy usually occurs for some reason. The old concept of idiopathic epilepsy, epilepsy without a cause, no longer holds true.
A neurologist will carry out tests to detect abnormalities either in the structure of your brain or in the way it is working. You will also be given blood tests, which can indicate whether there is any medical reason which might account for your seizure. These routine tests are all quite straightforward and painless and carry no risk. Usually the tests will give detailed information about the cause of the epilepsy.
Discovering the cause of your epilepsy is important for two reasons. To begin with, it may affect the choice of treatment. Until you are certain what is causing the epilepsy it is not possible to choose the appropriate treatment. And secondly, it helps most people who have epilepsy to know why it developed. It helps their families too. Whenever a child is ill, for example, parents tend to blame themselves, however illogical this may be. They want to know how it happened, and to be able to explain it to themselves
Whether or not you are referred to a neurologist may also depend on whether or not you ask for a referral. Some people feel easier if they have as much information as possible about what is wrong with them; others are happy simply to accept what they are told and to leave all decisions up to their doctor. Neither approach is either right or wrong; it is very much a matter of your own particular personality. However, if you ask to be referred to a neurologist who has a special interest in epilepsy and your doctor seems reluctant to do so, it is reasonable to ask why. If they continually refuse to refer you, it might be worth changing your doctor to one who has a broader understanding of epilepsy.
Doctors, like gardeners, have their own fields of expertise. Medicine moves so fast nowadays that it is virtually impossible for a GP to be up to date with every new development in every field of medicine. Unless your GP has a special interest in epilepsy it is quite possible that their ideas about treating the condition may not be right up at the frontier of current thinking.Your GP may, for example, want to start treating you without referring you for further investigations. It is not unheard of for a GP to say to a patient, ‘You’ve got epilepsy. Go away and keep taking these tablets.’
This used to be normal practice because it used to be thought that the cause of epilepsy was unimportant. Indeed, in most cases it was believed that there was no cause to be found, and that most instances of epilepsy were ‘idiopathic’, that is, that there was no known cause for them. Investigations were pointless because so far as treatment was concerned the end result was much the same: ‘Keep on taking the tablets.’
Things are rather different now. New methods of imaging the brain have been developed which can produce a highly detailed picture of our most complex organ. The use of these new methods has shown one thing very clearly, and that is that epilepsy usually occurs for some reason. The old concept of idiopathic epilepsy, epilepsy without a cause, no longer holds true.
A neurologist will carry out tests to detect abnormalities either in the structure of your brain or in the way it is working. You will also be given blood tests, which can indicate whether there is any medical reason which might account for your seizure. These routine tests are all quite straightforward and painless and carry no risk. Usually the tests will give detailed information about the cause of the epilepsy.
Discovering the cause of your epilepsy is important for two reasons. To begin with, it may affect the choice of treatment. Until you are certain what is causing the epilepsy it is not possible to choose the appropriate treatment. And secondly, it helps most people who have epilepsy to know why it developed. It helps their families too. Whenever a child is ill, for example, parents tend to blame themselves, however illogical this may be. They want to know how it happened, and to be able to explain it to themselves
Whether or not you are referred to a neurologist may also depend on whether or not you ask for a referral. Some people feel easier if they have as much information as possible about what is wrong with them; others are happy simply to accept what they are told and to leave all decisions up to their doctor. Neither approach is either right or wrong; it is very much a matter of your own particular personality. However, if you ask to be referred to a neurologist who has a special interest in epilepsy and your doctor seems reluctant to do so, it is reasonable to ask why. If they continually refuse to refer you, it might be worth changing your doctor to one who has a broader understanding of epilepsy.
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