18. Epilepsy and other seizures

There are many types of seizure, and by no means every seizure is caused by epilepsy. Seizures need to be classified as precisely as possible, as the classification affects the likelihood of a symptomatic or hereditary cause and the treatment and prognosis. Treatment for epilepsy needs to be tailored to the patient. In addition to drug treatment – and sometimes surgery – it is important to consider lifestyle and life stage (contraception, pregnancy, etc.). The first part of this chapter deals with seizures in general and the differential diagnosis required (sect. 18.1), followed by a discussion of epilepsy (sect. 18.2.1), causes (sect. 18.2.2) and syndromes (sect. 18.2.3). A separate section is devoted to childhood epilepsy (sect. 18.2.4), and this part ends with a discussion of the treatment and monitoring of epilepsy (sect. 18.2.5). The last part of the chapter deals with non-epileptic seizures (sect. 18.3). This chapter also links up with the next chapter, on sleep (Chap. 19), and the chapters on movement disorders (Chap. 27) and dementia (Chap. 28).