Introduction

Suffering from epilepsy has several implications, basing on type of seizures, frequency of seizures and specific seizures’ triggers. People with epilepsy should consider and face peculiar challenges during working hours.

Physical effects of seizures or of antiseizure medications could impair your ability to work normally. Indeed, when experiencing tonic/atonic/tonic-clonic seizures, you could fall and report injuries. You should know your work environment well, and, also, people around you should know how to intervene to avoid serious injuries like brain trauma. The most important strategy is to put something soft under your head, trying to protect your head. When assisting you, people should not put things/fingers inside your mouth and not try to stop your movements.

You could experience physical symptoms also before the seizure (aura) with paraesthesia/visual symptoms/auditory illusions/hallucinations /olfactory sensations. In these occasions, it is fundamental to stay calm and try to warn someone around you that you are going to have a seizure and put you in a safe place, away from dangerous things.

You could experience other types of seizures, having exclusively abnormal movements (myoclonic movements) or abnormal sensation during focal seizures. You could also present head drops or falls because of tonic/tonic-clonic/atonic seizures. People around you should try to reassure you and to keep you away from dangers.

As for post-ictal period you could feel pain in muscles and fatigue. You could require a pause to start working again normally.
As for drugs, some of them could lead to side effects such as balance problems, in these cases it is important to notice your symptoms and to promptly inform your neurologist.

Some specific syndromes could be linked to motor impairment and degeneration. In these cases, obviously, the employee should avoid jobs requiring physical efforts or special skills, but they can work from home, using technology without any problem.
In this module our goal is to offer you some tips to ameliorate the management of physical symptoms and side effects of drugs.