Grand Mal now Tonic Clonic
- Thread starter valeriedl
- Start date
Welcome to the Coping With Epilepsy Forums
Welcome to the Coping With Epilepsy forums - a peer support community for folks dealing (directly or indirectly) with seizure disorders. You can visit the forum page to see the list of forum nodes (categories/rooms) for topics.
Please have a look around and if you like what you see, please consider registering an account and joining the discussions. When you register an account and log in, you may enjoy additional benefits including no ads, access to members only (ie. private) forum nodes and more. Registering an account is free - you have nothing to lose!
- Messages
- 17,355
- Reaction score
- 756
- Points
- 263
I think people still do use the term Grand Mal, but Generalized Tonic-Clonic is a more technically accurate term. Grand Mal loosely means "Big Sickness", whereas Generalized Tonic-Clonic actually describes what happens during the seizure: a seizure that has generalized (i.e. spread to the whole brain, resulting in loss of consciousness) that is comprised of a tonic (tense) phase, followed by a clonic (convulsive) phase.
For the same reason, petit mal (Little Sickness) seizures are now called Absence Seizures.
But the system of naming seizures is less than simple, and continues to evolve. Currently, classification is more or less based on five variables:
1. The primary cause. ("encephalopathic epilepsy")
2. The apparent, observable symptoms. ("tonic-clonic")
3. The location in the brain where the seizures originate. ("temporal lobe epilepsy")
4. As a part of a specific medical syndrome. ("Juvenile myoclonic epilepsy")
5. The event that triggers the seizures. ("photosensitive epilepsy, catamenial epilepsy")
For the same reason, petit mal (Little Sickness) seizures are now called Absence Seizures.
But the system of naming seizures is less than simple, and continues to evolve. Currently, classification is more or less based on five variables:
1. The primary cause. ("encephalopathic epilepsy")
2. The apparent, observable symptoms. ("tonic-clonic")
3. The location in the brain where the seizures originate. ("temporal lobe epilepsy")
4. As a part of a specific medical syndrome. ("Juvenile myoclonic epilepsy")
5. The event that triggers the seizures. ("photosensitive epilepsy, catamenial epilepsy")
