Navigating Life with Epilepsy


Book Description

Roughly 3 million people in the United States have already been diagnosed with epilepsy and another 200,000 new cases are diagnosed each year. Worldwide, approximately 1 percent of the global population is diagnosed with epilepsy at some point in their lives. With the diagnosis come questions, concerns, and uncertainties from both the person diagnosed and their family. So, where to go? Navigating Life with Epilepsy provides accessible, comprehensive, and up-to-date information about epilepsy shared from the two decades of experience of epileptologist David Spencer, MD, FAAN. This book guides the reader through the initial diagnosis, offers explanations on current approaches to diagnostic testing, medications, treatment options, and life management for the patient, their family, and their caregiver. Patient's stories are peppered throughout to illustrate that you are not alone: like you, they must navigate the myriad psychosocial challenges associated with epilepsy, including everyday concerns like driving, work, and relationships. Navigating Life with Epilepsy is a perfect resource for both patients with epilepsy and the family members and friends who care for them.




Epilepsy Across the Spectrum


Book Description

Although epilepsy is one of the nation's most common neurological disorders, public understanding of it is limited. Many people do not know the causes of epilepsy or what they should do if they see someone having a seizure. Epilepsy is a complex spectrum of disorders that affects an estimated 2.2 million Americans in a variety of ways, and is characterized by unpredictable seizures that differ in type, cause, and severity. Yet living with epilepsy is about much more than just seizures; the disorder is often defined in practical terms, such as challenges in school, uncertainties about social situations and employment, limitations on driving, and questions about independent living. The Institute of Medicine was asked to examine the public health dimensions of the epilepsies, focusing on public health surveillance and data collection; population and public health research; health policy, health care, and human services; and education for people with the disorder and their families, health care providers, and the public. In Epilepsy Across the Spectrum, the IOM makes recommendations ranging from the expansion of collaborative epilepsy surveillance efforts, to the coordination of public awareness efforts, to the engagement of people with epilepsy and their families in education, dissemination, and advocacy for improved care and services. Taking action across multiple dimensions will improve the lives of people with epilepsy and their families. The realistic, feasible, and action-oriented recommendations in this report can help enable short- and long-term improvements for people with epilepsy. For all epilepsy organizations and advocates, local, state, and federal agencies, researchers, health care professionals, people with epilepsy, as well as the public, Epilepsy Across the Spectrum is an essential resource.




Epilepsy


Book Description

This book is a unique collaboration between a gifted writer with epilepsy and a skilled physician who has brought new insight into the treatment of this condition. At the age of twenty-six, when Adrienne Richard was seven months pregnant, she was diagnosed with epilepsy. For years she took anticonvulsant drugs to control her seizures, but she wanted to wean herself from the powerful drugs if she could. During the first ten years without medication she had only one seizure. Her goal was to live seizure-free. Ms. Richard practiced yoga, biofeedback, and mind/body techniques in the eighties to help her reach that goal. While writing an article for a magazine based in California, she learned of Dr. Joel Reiter, who was exploring epilepsy self-care in his clinical practice and through his groundbreaking research. Epilepsy: A New Approach combines Adrienne Richard's own inspiring story of overcoming a debilitating condition with Dr. Reiter's up-to-the-minute medical knowledge of diagnosis and treatment. This self-help program offers people with epilepsy and those who love them a chance to regain control of their lives.




Living Well with Epilepsy and Other Seizure Disorders


Book Description

Treatment options, lifestyle strategies,and emotional support for two million Americans. Epilepsy, once mistakenly associated with demonic possession, has for centuries been a poorly understood illness. Today, though it affects nearly one out of every one hundred Americans, little comprehensive information can be found on bookshelves regarding this common and complex neurological disease. Until now! Using his expertise in pharmacology and neuroscience, Dr. Carl Bazil demystifies epilepsy and other seizure disorders and offers medical, practical, and emotional support to patients and their families. He explains how and why seizures occur, and thoroughly discusses treatment options, the pros and cons of surgery, experimental and alternative treatments, strategies for daily living, and much more. Substantiated with case examples, this useful book provides a much-needed window into epilepsy so that patients can achieve the full life they deserve.




A Mind Unraveled


Book Description

The compelling story of an acclaimed journalist and New York Times bestselling author’s ongoing struggle with epilepsy—how, through personal resilience and the support of loved ones, he overcame medical incompetence and institutional discrimination to achieve once unthinkable success. With a new afterword • “REMARKABLE . . . inspirational in the true sense of the word.”—The New York Times Book Review This is the story of one man’s battle to pursue his dreams despite an often incapacitating brain disorder. From his early experiences of fear and denial to his exasperating search for treatment, Kurt Eichenwald provides a deeply candid account of his years facing this misunderstood and often stigmatized condition. He details his encounters with the doctors whose negligence could have killed him, but for the heroic actions of a brilliant neurologist and the family and friends who fought for him. Ultimately, A Mind Unraveled is an inspirational story, one that chronicles how Eichenwald, faced often with his own mortality, transformed trauma into a guide for reaching the future he desired. Praise for A Mind Unraveled “An intimate journey . . . bravely illuminating the trials of living inside a body always poised to betray itself.”—O: The Oprah Magazine “Poignant and infuriating . . . merges elements of medical drama, anti-discrimination fable, and coming-of-age memoir.”—The New Yorker “One of the best thrillers I’ve read in years, yet there are no detectives, no corpses, no guns or knives.”—Minneapolis Star-Tribune “Terrific . . . Eichenwald’s narrative is a suspenseful medical thriller about a condition that makes everyday life a mine field, a fierce indictment of a callous medical establishment, and an against-the-odds recovery saga.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review) “Riveting . . . Eichenwald has created a universal tale of resilience wrapped in a primal scream against the far-too-savage world."—Booklist (starred review) “An extraordinary book.”—Harriet Lerner, Ph.D., New York Times bestselling author of The Dance of Anger




Navigating Life with Chronic Pain


Book Description

Navigating Life with Chronic Pain provides accessible, comprehensive, and up-to-date information about the challenges patients, family members, and caregivers face when confronted by chronic pain, showing that no two pain experiences are the same. The authors expertly guide the reader through current approaches, to diagnoses including a review of diagnostic tests, and discuss a comprehensive, integrated approach to chronic pain treatment. Through the use of patient stories, you get real-world experiences and advice on navigating the day-to-day challenges, associated with chronic pain like exercising and nutrition, using non-opioid drugs, deciding when surgery is the best option, how to maintain intimacy with a partner, and how to manage caregiver burnout.




Navigating Life with Multiple Sclerosis


Book Description

Navigating Life with Multiple Sclerosis will serve as a practical guide for meeting the challenges of this life-long disease. MS may cause a myriad of symptoms and varies greatly from person to person. The authors demystify MS and offer practical solutions and guidance based upon their extensive combined clinical and research experience. The book tackles many of the common symptoms experienced by the person with MS and looks into the future to explore where research is headed. If you are newly diagnosed or have been living with MS for years, this book is an invaluable guide.




Navigating Life with a Brain Tumor


Book Description

Navigating Life with a Brain Tumor is a guide for anyone affected by brain tumors and their associated conditions-patients, family members, friends, and caregivers. Providing readily accessible information and real-world encouragement to people living with primary and metastatic brain tumors and their caregivers, this book discusses the basics of brain tumors, types of tumors, management of different tumors, related symptoms, treatments and side effects, the role of medical team members, and coping strategies from initial diagnosis throughout the course of the illness. At the same time, it also offers practical suggestions on symptom management and lifestyle modification, as well as real-life anecdotes and advice from both patients and family members and friends who are experiencing this diagnosis.




Epilepsy: 199 Answers, Second Edition


Book Description

This book was written with the belief that accurate and comprehensible medical information can empower people with epilepsy to combat their disease. Epilepsy: 199 Answers will help readers better understand their doctor's language and ask better questions. In the revised second edition, both the text and resource sections have been rewritten to reflect the current state of the art of epilepsy treatment. For example, it includes discussions of new antiepileptic drugs that have benefitted many patients with fewer seizures or decreased side effects, the vagal nerve stimulator (VNS), advances in MRI diagnostic precision that have had important implications for patient care, and an improved understanding of the genetic basis of epilepsy.




Wyllie's Treatment of Epilepsy


Book Description

In one convenient source, this book provides a broad, detailed, and cohesive overview of seizure disorders and contemporary treatment options. For this Fifth Edition, the editors have replaced or significantly revised approximately 30 to 50 percent of the chapters, and have updated all of them. Dr. Wyllie has invited three new editors: Gregory Cascino, MD, FAAN, at Mayo Clinic, adult epileptologist with special expertise in neuroimaging; Barry Gidal, PharmD, at University of Wisconsin, a pharmacologist with phenomenal expertise in antiepileptic medications; and Howard Goodkin, MD, PhD, a pediatric neurologist at the University of Virginia. A fully searchable companion website will include the full text online and supplementary material such as seizure videos, additional EEG tracings, and more color illustrations.