"It's time to break down the misconceptions around the disease"

• This Monday is International Epilepsy Day, a disease that affects around 650,000 people in France.

• However, it remains relatively unknown and is the subject of many received ideas.

• Driving, influence of screens, crisis management, "20 Minutes" disentangles the true from the false.

“An epileptic seizure is when someone convulses”, so “you have to put an object in your mouth to prevent the person from choking on their tongue”.

"Screens can cause seizures."

And “when you are epileptic, you are not allowed to drive”.

Epilepsy, everyone knows it, but almost no one really knows what it is, or how to react to it.

On the occasion this Monday of the International Day of Epilepsy, "20 Minutes" demolishes the ideas received around this disease which affects approximately 1% of the population.

"And there is an urgent need to break the taboo around epilepsy, because silence and ignorance have serious consequences for patients", press Dr. Norbert Khayat, neurologist specializing in this pathology and vice-president of the association Epilepsie France, which disentangles the true from the false on epilepsy for

.

Epilepsy, we speak little about it and for many, it is a rare disease which manifests itself by seizures.

Is that the case ?

The first misconception about epilepsy is that it is a rare disease, whereas it is common: today it is the second neurological disease, it affects 1% of the population, i.e. more of 650,000 people in France alone, adults and children.

And I insist: it is a neurological disease, not a psychiatric one.

But even today, it's a taboo pathology, because it's scary: seeing someone who's fine and who two seconds later has a seizure, with disordered movements, can be impressive.

Also, when we talk about epilepsy, there are actually epilepsies, of very different types and severity.

In films and series, an epileptic person in crisis is someone who convulses violently.

But seizures can manifest themselves in many ways: by disorderly movements, by a break in contact like children having absences of ten to twenty seconds, but also by tingling in the arm.

And we would like us not only to talk about these very impressive convulsive seizures, because this lack of information contributes to the delay in diagnosis and care for all those who have episodes manifesting themselves differently.

However, the earlier the treatment, the better the prognosis for the patients.

Can screen exposure cause epileptic seizures?

We sometimes see a banner appear at the start of a TV program or video game indicating that certain images are likely to cause an epileptic seizure.

This effect is typically what the strobe produces in a nightclub, with its intermittent light and a very rapid transition from white to black.

In practice, this concerns a minority of people: only 1% of epileptic patients suffer from photosensitive epilepsy.

So people diagnosed know perfectly well whether or not they have a photosensitive form.

Is it impossible to drive or exercise certain professions when one is epileptic?

It's a question of common sense: if you have a significant risk of having seizures, you yourself know that driving is not indicated.

Previously driving was prohibited, but since 2005, it is authorized and supervised.

If you have stable epilepsy for a year – hence the importance of having early and quality diagnosis and care – an expert will give you permission to drive after a regular medical visit. .

And it is essential to promote the most normal daily life possible, in complete autonomy to work, do your shopping and your activities.

Today, approximately 80% of patients have stable epilepsy with appropriate treatment.

With regard to employment, access to certain professions is still to this day closed to people with epilepsy.

These are professions concerning early childhood, the SNCF, civil aviation, professional divers, the police, the navy or even the professions of driving heavy vehicles.

But beyond these restrictions, we still see today that access to the world of work is more complicated.

All this ignorance around epilepsy fuels fear and taboo, as well as patient discrimination.

For them, it's a double penalty: in addition to illness, school results can be affected, access to certain leisure activities is prohibited.

Later, patients encounter difficulties in finding employment, because potential employers may be reluctant to hire, or access mortgages.

And as you are sick, you are put aside, you will socialize less than the others.

But the more we socialize, the more we live in a community, the more we feel useful, the less we are stressed and anxious, and the less we have a crisis.

Hence the importance of triggering this virtuous circle.

And there, the State also has a role to play in promoting access for these disabled people to the world of work.

Is it long and difficult to find a treatment adapted to your epilepsy?

To date, treatments exist to prevent seizures and new treatments are regularly emerging.

We can also act on certain factors such as stress or lifestyle and other solutions can be proposed, such as surgery or the installation of a vagus nerve stimulator, to reduce seizures.

But sometimes existing treatments are not enough.

This is why at Epilepsie France, we fought for epileptic patients to have access to therapeutic cannabis.

It is also not a magic bullet for all patients, but for certain drug-resistant or severe forms of the disease, it is a therapeutic route that works.

Its access is today extremely restricted, and it will have to be facilitated.

How to react when faced with a person having an epileptic seizure?

And what should you not do?

You can protect the person by removing their glasses and placing a cushion or a ball of clothing under their head to prevent injury.

On the other hand, it is not recommended to immobilize it, to hinder its movements.

On the other hand, we can note the time of the beginning of the crisis and put the person in a lateral safety position.

And if the crisis lasts more than 5 minutes, we dial 15. When it is short (less than two to three minutes), once the crisis is over, we reassure the person and make sure that they are well.

If there is one thing that should not be done, it is to place something in the patient's mouth: you cannot choke on your tongue.

By putting the fingers or an object in the mouth of the patient in crisis, there is not only the risk of hurting him, but also of making him vomit, with the risk that it will pass into the lungs and cause respiratory arrest.

This is why we are quite amazed to see that epilepsy is never mentioned during first aid training.

Here again, we see the deleterious effects of ignorance.

I would be happy for a public figure to speak openly about his epilepsy to break the taboo and the vicious circle!

Health

Profile of patients, type of drugs… What do we know about the experimentation with cannabis for medical use that is about to start?

Health

World Epilepsy Day: "Doctors treat seizures, but not the impact on social life"

• Sickness

• Neurology

• Health

• Brain

• epilepsy

• 0 comment

• 0 share

  • Share on Messenger

  • Share on Facebook

  • Share on Twitter

  • Share on Flipboard

  • Share on Pinterest

  • Share on Linkedin

  • Send by Mail

• To safeguard

• A fault ?

• To print