The International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE) is a professional organization dedicated to ensuring that healthcare professionals, patients, and their care providers across the world have the educational and research resources that are essential in understanding, diagnosing, and treating people with epilepsy.
The ILAE has established the terminology and approaches for classifying seizures and forms of epilepsy. This framework, called Classification of the Epilepsies, is the key international resource that healthcare professionals use when diagnosing and treating patients with epilepsy. The ILAE updated the Classification of the Epilepsies in 2017, resulting in new, more accurate names for seizures, and takes the following into account: [1], [2]
Seizures are first classified by their onset. This is the initial and most basic identification of seizure type under the new system. Any further classification by looking at awareness during a focal seizure, motor/nonmotor onset, and the features of the seizure is optional.
There are several different types of seizures, each with its own distinct characteristics and symptoms. The main types of seizures include:
Formerly known as “partial” seizures, focal seizures start on one side, also known as a hemisphere, of the brain. This type of seizure affects approximately 60% of people with epilepsy.2-4 Focal seizures can be divided into different types based on whether consciousness is impaired during the event.2
Generalized seizures involve both hemispheres of the brain. These seizures can have a physical component, such as a fall or muscle contraction (ex. jerks), or they may have no physical component (absence seizure).2
In some cases, the beginning of a seizure is not entirely known. This may be because the person was alone when the seizure occurred, or because diagnostic testing has not yet been conducted and there is inadequate information to make the identification.
Once the physician knows how and where the seizure started, a person’s seizures are classified. However, there is an opportunity for seizure’s name to be more descriptive by including additional information – that’s where additional features come in.
There are also times when a seizure begins in one hemisphere of the brain and then spread to the other side of the brain. These seizures are referred to as bilateral.
The next step in classifying seizures involves looking at additional features that occurred with the seizure. While this step is optional, doing so allows the physician to include some additional information about the type of seizure by looking at a couple of characteristics:
Focal onset seizures can be further divided by whether a person is or is not aware of their surroundings during the seizure:
Awareness is reflecting on whether the person seizing had any knowledge of self and the environment during the seizure. It is NOT referring to whether or not the individual was aware that a seizure had occurred. If awareness of the seizure is impaired for any portion of it, then the seizure is classified as focal unaware.
Since most generalized seizures involve loss of consciousness, there is no additional descriptor on awareness used with generalized seizures.
Answering these questions is important because it helps the diagnosing physician more descriptively characterize the type of seizure that occurred.
The 2017 seizure classification system allows for an even greater description of the seizure beyond the characterizations explained in the section above. It provides more detailed information on the level of motor and nonmotor symptoms seen with the seizures.
Focal onset seizures can be further classified into seizures that have a physical component (motor) and those that do not have a physical component (nonmotor).
Focal Motor Seizures
Focal Nonmotor Seizures
Generalized onset seizures can be further classified into seizures that have a motor or nonmotor component, as well.
Generalized Motor Seizures
Generalized NonMotor Seizures
Psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (PNES) happen when a person experiences symptoms similar to those of epilepsy, but without any abnormal activity in the brain. The causes of non-epileptic seizures are not fully understood, but non-epileptic seizures may be associated with anxiety, depression, and personality disorders.5 There is also a link between post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and non-epileptic seizures.[5]