Even if you do have epilepsy, it doesn’t necessarily mean you know all the lingo. (I didn’t!) So here are some definitions of medical terms related to epilepsy…

Absence Seizure (previously called petit mal seizures):Frequent, brief events (5-30 seconds) with abrupt onset, impairment of consciousness, and staring followed by an abrupt return to baseline function. If a person is speaking when the absence seizure occurs, he or she will stop talking, stare and when the brief seizure is over, resume the sentence as if nothing had occurred. In fact the person usually does not even recognize that a seizure occurred.

Abdominal Epilepsy:An exceptionally rare syndrome of epilepsy that’s more likely to occur in children. With abdominal epilepsy, seizure activity causes abdominal symptoms. For example, it may cause pain and nausea. Anticonvulsant medications can improve the symptoms.

Anticonvulsant:An antiepileptic drug used to control both convulsive and non-convulsive seizures.