What is a seizure?
A seizure is a sudden surge of unusual electrical activity in the brain. Seizures can cause changes in movement, behavior, and awareness.
While some seizures have obvious symptoms, others are subtler and harder to recognize.
Some symptoms of a seizure include:
- changes to sense of smell, sound, or taste
- confusion
- dizziness
- feelings of fear, panic, or déjà vu
- headache
- nausea
- numbness and tingling
- staring or unresponsiveness
- loss of consciousness
- uncontrollable jerking movements, shaking, or twitching
- visual disturbances
A seizure typically lasts from 30 seconds to 2 minutes, but they can last longer.
Some people with multiple sclerosis (MS) experience seizures. Experts aren’t sure why it happens, but it may have something to do with how MS affects the brain.
Read on to learn more about MS-related seizures as well things that might be mistaken for seizure symptoms in people with MS.
Seizures affect between 2 and 5 percent of people with MS, so it’s not a very common symptom. For comparison, about 3 percent of people in the general population experience seizures.
They can occur as part of a disease relapse or independent of a relapse. Sometimes, a seizure is the first noticeable sign of MS.
There are many types of seizures. The most common types for people with MS are:
- generalized absence seizures, which cause temporary loss of consciousness
- generalized tonic-clonic seizures, which cause short periods of uncontrollable movement and loss of consciousness
- complex partial seizures, which cause repetitive movements and make someone appear awake but unresponsive