Is Epilepsy a Neurodivergence?
When people discuss neurodivergence, many people assume they’re talking about autism or ADHD. However, the umbrella of neurodivergence covers many, many neurological differences, including epilepsy. The classification of epilepsy as a neurodivergence has been debated. Some believe it is a neurological disorder – as it has clear medical symptoms and treatments – opposed to a neurodivergence. The fact it can be diagnosed using scans such as EEG is often considered the point of difference. Epilepsy is frequently included in lists of neurodivergencies, but many bodies governing epilepsy research, treatment, and support, disagree. Whichever side of the fence you sit on on this topic, the fact that there is a statistical link between epilepsy and agreed-upon neurodivergencies still exists.
What is Epilepsy?
Epilepsy is the fourth most common neurological disorder in the world. If you have epilepsy, surges of electrical activity in your brain can cause recurring seizures.
Epilepsy is a brain disorder that causes recurring, unprovoked seizures. Your doctor may diagnose you with epilepsy if you have two unprovoked seizures or one unprovoked seizure with a high risk of more. Not all seizures are the result of epilepsy. Seizures may relate to a brain injury or a family trait, but often the cause is completely unknown.
The word “epilepsy” simply means the same thing as “seizure disorders.” It does not state anything about the cause of the person’s seizures or their severity.
https://www.epilepsy.com/what-is-epilepsy
Seizure Types in Epilepsy
Like many things in the health field, terminology around epilepsy changes over time. What were previously considered the two forms of epileptic seizure – grand mal, and petit mal – are no longer used for classification. According to Epilepsy.com, seizures are now classified as:
Generalised Onset:
- Motor symptoms may include sustained rhythmical jerking movements (clonic), muscles becoming weak or limp (atonic), muscles becoming tense or rigid (tonic), brief muscle twitching (myoclonus), or epileptic spasms (body flexes and extends repeatedly).
- Non-motor symptoms are usually called absence seizures. These can be typical or atypical absence seizures (staring spells). Absence seizures can also have brief twitches (myoclonus) that can affect a specific part of the body or just the eyelids.
Focal Onset:
- Motor symptoms may also include jerking (clonic), muscles becoming limp or weak (atonic), tense or rigid muscles (tonic), brief muscle twitching (myoclonus), or epileptic spasms. There may also be automatisms or repeated automatic movements, like clapping or rubbing of hands, lipsmacking or chewing, or running.
- Non-motor symptoms: Examples of symptoms that don’t affect movement could be changes in sensation, emotions, thinking or cognition, autonomic functions (such as gastrointestinal sensations, waves of heat or cold, goosebumps, heart racing, etc.), or lack of movement (called behaviour arrest).
Unknown Onset:
- Motor seizures are described as either tonic-clonic or epileptic spasms.
- Non-motor seizures usually include a behavior arrest. This means that movement stops – the person may just stare and not make any other movements.
The Link Between Epilepsy and ND
Around half or more of people with epilepsy have a co-occurring condition, many of these being neurodivergencies.
While it is thought that the prevalence of epilepsy in Australia is around 1-4%, if you reduce the sample down to autistic people only the prevalence is closer to 25-30%. In short, autistic people are more likely to be epileptic than allistic people are. Conversely, around 10% of epileptic people are confirmed as autistic. It is relevant to point out that autism is still “underdiagnosed”. Therefore these statistics are likely to be higher in reality.
Epilepsy can be described as a spectrum disorder. Like autism, the disorder is multifactorial, multifaceted, and varies in severity from individual to individual. Over the last several years, our field has become increasingly aware of the complex relationships between epilepsy and a host of cognitive, behavioral, psychiatric, and other neurological disorders, and even sudden death.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3021750/
While 3-5% of people have ADHD, this is as high as 77% in a population of people with epilepsy. Again, ADHD is “underdiagnosed” but the comparative statistic is still relevant.
Purple Day
March 26 is Purple Day, internationally.
Purple Day began in 2008, when an amazing nine year old in Canada, Cassidy Megan, decided reducing the taboo and misinformation around epilepsy would allow people with epilepsy – like her – to access better support, and feel less isolated. As lavender was the international recognised colour associated with epilepsy, she named this day Purple Day.
Every 33 minutes, someone’s life is turned upside down by epilepsy. This week alone, 305 Australians will be diagnosed with epilepsy.
Epilepsy Action Australia https://www.epilepsy.org.au/fundraise/make-march-purple/
You can support Purple Day in Australia in a number of ways. Check out Epilepsy Action Australia’s link here: https://www.epilepsy.org.au/fundraise/make-march-purple/