Triggers of seizures

  Seizures are difficult to predict, and some patients can find triggers that, if avoided, can result in fewer or no seizures. The most important triggers are alcohol consumption, reduced sleep, sudden discontinuation of antiepileptic drugs, overexertion, and shock may also be triggers. There are also triggers that are difficult to avoid. In some female patients, seizures are closely related to menstruation, which some people call menstrual epilepsy. Pregnancy is also a trigger about 45% of female patients with epilepsy have an increase in seizures during pregnancy. A few patients have seizures only during pregnancy, called gestational epilepsy, and the seizures stop after delivery.  Some people with epilepsy have seizures only when they perform a specific activity: for example, some people have seizures only when they take a hot bath. Some people have seizures only while watching television, and there are reading epilepsy and chess epilepsy, as well as musical epilepsy and photosensitive epilepsy.  The more specific reflex epilepsy, whose mechanism is still unknown, is legendary; these patients have seizures only during certain specific stimuli that are completely harmless or even beneficial to healthy people. Hot-water epilepsy has been reported in India, where a patient washes his hair with hot water to cause a seizure. More than 900 cases of television-induced seizures have been reported worldwide, and even more unbelievably, watching television does not cause a seizure, but changing the channel does. In addition, there are reading epilepsy and chess epilepsy, both of which are seizure triggers due to thinking itself. There is also musical epilepsy, where listening to a certain musical instrument or even a song or person singing causes a seizure. Patients with photosensitive epilepsy are sensitive to flashing lights. Sitting on a bus and looking out the window at rows of trees flashing by, walking up and down an electric staircase and watching the steps move up and down, walking through the jungle in the summer and seeing the sunlight spilling through the cracks in the leaves can trigger a seizure. There are also children whose parents caress and pat their shoulders and heads causing sudden falls and seizures. There are strange triggers for reflex epilepsy, but the treatment is simple to remove the triggers to be completely seizure-free without the need for antiepileptic drugs.