Overview
Fits are abnormal electrical activity in the brain that occurs quickly. It can go almost unnoticed or, in severe cases, it can cause unconsciousness and seizures, when your body shakes uncontrollably. Fits usually come on suddenly. Duration and severity can vary. Fits can happen just one time or repeatedly.
If they come back, they have epilepsy or an epileptic disorder. Less than one out of ten people who have fits is epilepsy.
What is Fits?
Fits are sudden, uncontrolled electrical disturbances in the brain. It can cause changes in your behavior, movements, feelings, and levels of consciousness. If you have two or more fits or a tendency to have recurrent fits, you have epilepsy.
There are many types of fits, which range in severity. Fit types vary by where and how they begin in the brain. Most fits last from 30 seconds to two minutes. A fit that lasts longer than five minutes is a medical emergency.
Fits are more common than you might think. Fits can happen after a stroke, a closed head injury, an infection such as meningitis, or another illness. Many times, though, the cause of fits is unknown.
Most fit disorders can be controlled with medication, but the management of fits can still have a significant impact on your daily life. The good news is that you can work with your health care professional to balance fit control and medication side effects.
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Get A Second OpinionTypes of Fits
The International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE) introduced updated classifications in 2017 that better describe the many types of fits. The two major types called focal onset fits and generalized onset fits.
Focal Onset Fits:
- With Impaired Awareness: Involves changes in consciousness, such as staring into space or performing repetitive movements.
- Without Loss of Consciousness: Alters emotions or sensory perceptions without loss of consciousness, may involve involuntary jerking or sensory symptoms.
Generalized Onset Fits:
- Tonic-Clonic (Grand Mal): Involves muscle stiffening followed by jerky movements, often leading to loss of consciousness.
- Absence (Petit-Mal): Brief episodes of blinking or staring into space.
- Atonic (Drop Attacks): Sudden loss of muscle tone, leading to falling or nodding of the head.
- Clonic: Characterized by rhythmic muscle jerks, typically affecting the neck, face, and arms.
- Myoclonic: Sudden, brief jerks or twitches of arms and legs.
Unknown Onset Fits:
- Occur when the beginning of fits is not observed, often waking up to witness the fit, classified due to insufficient information about the onset.
What Are The Main Causes of Fits?
Neurons in the brain create, send, and receive electrical impulses, which allow the brain's nerve cells to communicate. Anything that disrupts these communication pathways can lead to fits.
The most common cause of fits is epilepsy. But not every person who has fits has epilepsy.
Sometimes fits happen because of:
- High Fever , which can associate with an infection such as meningitis
- Lack of sleep
- Hyponatremia, which can happen with diuretic therapy
- Medications, such as certain pain relievers, antidepressants, or smoking cessation therapies, that lower the seizure threshold
- Head trauma that causes an area of bleeding in the brain
- Stroke
- Brain tumor
- Illegal or recreational drugs, such as amphetamines or cocaine
- Alcohol abuse, during times of withdrawal or extreme intoxication
- COVID-19
Diagnosis Of Fits
The Doctor will examine you. You will be asked questions related to your medical history, and symptoms.
- Doctors can have difficulty in diagnosing seizure types. They might recommend certain tests to diagnose a seizure accurately and to help ensure effective treatment.
- Your doctor will consider your full medical history and the events leading up to the seizure. Conditions such as migraine headaches, sleep disorders , and extreme psychological stress can cause seizure-like symptoms.
- Lab tests may help your doctor rule out other conditions that can cause seizure-like activity. The tests may include:
- blood testing to check for electrolyte imbalances
- a spinal tap to rule out infection
- a toxicology screening to test for drugs, poisons, or toxins
- An electroencephalogram (EEG) measures brain waves and helps diagnose seizures by observing brain wave patterns during an episode.
- Imaging scans such as CT scan or MRI scans provide detailed brain images, helping detect abnormalities like blocked blood flow or tumors.
Treatment of Fits
Not everyone who has one fits will have another one, and because fits can isolate an incident, your doctor may not decide to start treatment until you've had over one.
The optimal goal in fits treatment is to find the best possible therapy to stop fits, with the fewest side effects.
Medication of Fits
Treatment for fits often involves the use of anti-fit medications. Several options exist for anti-fit medications. The goal is to find the medicine that works best for you and has the fewest side effects. Sometimes, your doctor might recommend more than one medication. Finding the right medication and dosage can be complex.
Your doctor will consider your condition, your frequency of fits, your age, and other factors when choosing which medication to prescribe. Your doctor will also review any other medications you may take, to ensure the anti-epileptic medications won't interact with them.
Surgery and Other Therapies
If anti-fit medications aren't effective, other treatments may be an option:
- Surgery: The goal of surgery is to stop fits from happening. Surgeons locate and remove the area of your brain where fits begin. Surgery works best for people who have fits that always originate in the same place in their brains.
- Vagus nerve stimulation: A device implanted underneath the skin of your chest stimulates the vagus nerve in your neck, signaling your brain that inhibits fits. With vagus nerve stimulation, you may still need to take medication, but you may lower the dose.
- Responsive neurostimulation: During responsive neuro-stimulation, a device implanted on the surface of your brain or within brain tissue can detect fits activity and deliver electrical stimulation to the detected area to stop fits.
- Deep brain stimulation: Doctor’s implant electrodes within certain areas of your brain to produce electrical impulses that regulate abnormal brain activity. The electrodes attach to a pacemaker-like device placed under the skin of your chest, which controls the amount of stimulation produced.
- Dietary therapy: Following a diet that's high in fat and low in carbohydrates, known as a ketogenic diet, can improve its control. Variations on a high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet, such as the low glycemic index and modified Atkins diets, though less effective, aren't as restrictive as the ketogenic diet and may provide benefits.
Pregnancy and Fits
- Women who've had previous fits typically can have healthy pregnancies. Birth defects related to certain medications can sometimes occur.
- Valproic acid, a medication for generalised fits, has been linked to cognitive deficits and neural tube defects in babies, such as spina bifida. The American Academy of Neurology advises against its use during pregnancy due to potential risks. Discuss these risks with your doctor, especially if you're planning to conceive, as preconception planning is crucial for women with a history of fits.
- Sometimes, it may be appropriate to change the dose of fits medication before or during pregnancy. Medications may be switched in rare cases.
Contraception and anti-seizure medications
Some anti-fits medications can alter the effectiveness of birth control medication. If contraception is a high priority, check with your doctor to evaluate whether your medication interacts with your oral contraceptive and if other forms of contraception need to be considered.
When to see a Doctor?
Seek immediate medical help if any of the following occurs:
- Fits last over five minutes
- Breathing or consciousness doesn't return after fits stop
- A second fits follow immediately
- You have a high fever
- You're experiencing heat exhaustion
- You're pregnant
- You have diabetes
- You've injured yourself during fits
If you experience fits for the first time, seek medical advice.
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Book an AppointmentHome Remedies
Here are some steps you can take to help with fits control:
- Take medication correctly: Don't adjust the dosage before talking to your doctor. If you feel your medication should be changed, discuss it with your doctor.
- Get enough sleep: Lack of sleep can trigger fits. Be sure to get adequate rest every night.
- Wear a medical alert bracelet: This will help emergency personnel know how to treat you correctly if you have other fits.
- Be active: Exercising and being active may help keep you physically healthy and reduce depression. Drink enough water and rest if you get tired during exercise.
- Make healthy life choices: Managing stress, limiting alcoholic beverages, and avoiding cigarettes all factor into a healthy lifestyle.
Personal safety
Fits rarely result in serious injury, but if you have recurrent fits, injury is a possibility. These steps can help you avoid injury during fits:
- Don't swim alone or relax in a boat without someone nearby.
- Wear a helmet for protection during activities such as bike riding or sports participation.
- Take showers instead of baths unless someone is near you.
- Modify your furnishings: Pad sharp corners, buy furniture with rounded edges, and choose chairs that have arms to keep you from falling off the chair. Consider a carpet with thick padding to protect you from falling.
- First-aid tips should be displayed in a place where people can easily see them. Include any important phone numbers there as well.
Fits first aid
It's helpful to know what to do if you witness someone having fits. If you're at risk of having fits in the future, pass this information along to family, friends, and co-workers so that they know what to do if you have fits.
To help someone during fits, take these steps:
- Carefully roll the person onto one side
- Place something soft under his or her head
- Loosen tight neckwear
- Avoid putting your fingers or other objects in the person's mouth
- Don't restrict someone from having fits
- Clear away dangerous objects, if the person is moving
- Stay with the person until medical personnel arrive
- Observe the person closely so that you can provide details on what happened
- Time for the fits
- Stay calm
