If you or a loved one are experiencing epilepsy for the first time after age 65, you’re not alone. Among seniors, epilepsy is one of the top three most common neurological conditions. In fact, epilepsy starts more often in old age than in middle age, reflecting the parallel increase over time of some of its causes — such as stroke, Alzheimer’s disease and brain tumors.
[See: Was That a Seizure?]
Epilepsy poses special challenges for seniors. The first may be receiving the correct diagnosis. Gathering a clear description of the epileptic seizures may be difficult for seniors who live alone or in a residential care facility. Even if the seizures are witnessed or recorded on a smartphone, it may be difficult to recognize the signs, because seizures tend to look different in seniors than in younger people. They may be easily mistaken for other conditions that are common in seniors, such as stroke, dizziness and memory lapses. A neurologist can help uncover the problem and will likely perform an electroencephalogram, or EEG, and a brain MRI.
[Read: How to Find the Best Neurologist.]
Once epilepsy is diagnosed, the next step is treatment with medication. For seniors, this also raises some special issues. As we age, our liver and kidneys become less efficient at eliminating drugs from the body, and we require lower and more frequent doses and more careful monitoring for side effects. Seniors with balance problems, fatigue, confusion, slow thinking or tremor may be especially sensitive to drug side effects. It’s important to communicate any concerns to your doctor so that the medication can be adjusted as needed to keep side effects at bay.
Many seniors experience multiple health challenges at the same time, and this further complicates the epilepsy management. Some seizure medications can aggravate conditions such as kidney stones, thinning of the bones, blood clotting disorders or depression, and care must be taken to choose the best seizure medication for each individual. In addition, people with multiple conditions usually take multiple medications, each of which must be carefully managed to avoid harmful drug interactions. Close communication with every caregiver on your health care team is the key to early identification and correction of any drug-related problems that may emerge. If seizure control remains imperfect despite everyone’s best efforts, you may wish to consult with an epilepsy center to consider whether specialized surgery could be beneficial.
[See: 12 Signs You Should Fire Your Doctor.]
The good news is that with careful management, seizures can be completely controlled for most seniors who experience epilepsy.
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Epilepsy Affects People of All Ages, Including Seniors originally appeared on usnews.com
