Your health care team would start to look for other causes of seizures.įor more information about our at-home, ambulatory EEGs, call NeuLine Health at (844) 212-5321 or visit our website.Focal seizures - formerly known as partial seizures - are seizures that happen in specific parts of your brain. In this case, an EEG result would look normal and rule out epilepsy. This type of seizure is called a “psychogenic nonepileptic seizure” (PNES). These seizures are known as “provoked seizures.”Ī psychological event can also cause nonepileptic seizures. Nonepileptic seizures, which don’t alter the brain’s electrical activity, won’t show up on an EEG. Only seizures caused by epilepsy change the brain’s electrical activity. Other times when EEGs look normal, providers will need to look for other reasons to explain why seizures are occurring.

Seizures are one of the most common reasons for an EEG. The EEG is one piece of the puzzle that neurologists, psychiatrists or other members of your health care team will use to evaluate your symptoms. If my EEG results come back abnormal, then what? Often, when a person is in a more comfortable and familiar setting, the tests are more accurate and reflective of their everyday life. NeuLine Health offers patients 72-hour, ambulatory EEGs at home. Some people may go to an epilepsy monitoring unit for an EEG at a hospital or clinic. Often EEGs are coupled with video monitoring for even more data. The length of time an EEG takes varies from a half-hour to several days, so a neurologist can gather a wealth of data while you’re awake and sleeping. Your primary care provider or specialist can order an EEG to gather more information or make a diagnosis of a number of conditions, including epilepsy and PTSD. The neurologist will look at various brain wave patterns to see if they look normal or have irregularities. Electrodes attached to the forehead, temples and scalp track this electrical activity, and a neurologist can interpret it. When thousands of neurons fire simultaneously, they create an electrical field strong enough to measure through the skull. The info then gets relayed to other nerves, muscle or gland cells throughout the body. If brain waves look irregular, they may indicate a physical or psychological condition.ĮEGs, short for electroencephalograms, are painless, non-invasive tests that track electrical activity produced when neurons in the brain transmit messages to each other. EEGs give doctors information about how our brain communicates and sends messages to the rest of our body.

Eeg normal vs epilepsy