Frontal lobe seizures
Printer-friendly version
PDF Version
Your frontal lobes are involved with many different functions. These include: movement, emotions, memory, language, social behaviour and sexual behaviour. the frontal lobes are also considered to be home to your personality.
Symptoms of seizures in the frontal lobes
- Your head may turn to one side
- Your arms or hands may become stiff and drawn upwards
- You may make cycling movements with your legs and thrash your arms
- You may carry out strange and complicated body movements
- You may experience difficulty in talking or making people understand what you are saying
- Your sexual feelings and sexual behaviour can be affected. This may, or may not, be visible to an onlooker
- You may scream, swear or cry
- You may have jerking or trembling movements, which begin in one finger and then slowly move up to your whole hand and arm (this is called a 'Jacksonian' seizure and is usually very brief). Afterwards, you may experience a short period of muscle weakness.
Because some symptoms of frontal lobe seizures can appear quite dramatic and unusual to an onlooker, it is common for frontal lobe seizures to be wrongly diagnosed. This misdiagnosis could be as non-epileptic attacks, behaviour problems or, ocassionally, a psychiatric illness.
Loss of bladder and/or bowel control is more common in frontal lobe seizures than other partial seizures.
We can provide references and information on the source material we use to write our epilepsy advice and information pages. Please contact our Epilepsy Helpline by email at helpline@epilepsy.org.uk.
Epilepsy advice and information A to Z
- What is epilepsy?
- Children
- Depression
- Disability Discrimination Act (UK)
- Driving
- Education
- Employment
- Entitlements for people with epilepsy in England
- Entitlements for people with epilepsy in Wales
- Epilepsy and caring for children: a comprehensive guide
- Epilepsy and learning disabilities
- Epilepsy in later life
- Epilepsy information for prisons
- Getting a diagnosis
- Identity jewellery
- Inheritance
- Living with dificult to control epilepsy
- Me and my dad
- Memory
- Men and Epilepsy
- Mobile phones and epilepsy
- Osteoporosis, osteomalacia and epilepsy
- Photosensitive epilepsy
- Safety
- Seizures
- Sports and leisure
- Stress and epilepsy
- Sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP)
- Swine flu and epilepsy
- Syndromes
- Travel abroad
- Treatment
- Women and epilepsy
- Young people and epilepsy
- Epilepsy Action and the Information Standard
- The Epilepsies: You, Epilepsy and the NICE Guideline
- Epilepsy Action Information Reviewers (EAIRs)
- Technical editing/writing and copyright
Text Resizer:
%
Epilepsy Helpline
- UK freephone 0808 800 5050
- International +44 113 210 8850
- Email: helpline@epilepsy.org.uk
- Txt msg: 07797 805 390 info






