Epilepsy: a family physician' perspective

ABSTRACT

Epilepsy is characterized by the occurrence of at least two unprovoked seizures. Seizures occur due to abnormal hypersynchronous discharges of cortical neurons and the clinical features depend upon the location and extent of the propagation of the discharging neurons. Family physician should be able to initiate management, alleviate misunderstandings and refer appropriately when required. For this review, literature search was done on PubMed. Only those articles which were related to the family physicians need were selected. They were further reviewed by the authors and data concerning common problems faced by family physicians was extracted and synthesized. This article reviews the definition of common terminology to describe seizures, classifications, clinical manifestations and complications along with the evaluation and management of epileptic seizures