What should you know about a minor seizure?

A minor seizure can involve brief altered awareness or movements and still requires safe first aid and medical assessment. Someone may stare, stop responding, repeat a movement, become briefly confused or have a short period of jerking. Do not assume a short event is harmless, particularly if it is the first episode.

A seizure is a sudden burst of abnormal electrical activity in the brain. It may affect awareness, movement, sensation, emotion or behaviour, and not every seizure causes a fall or full-body shaking. Possible contributors include low blood sugar, alcohol withdrawal, infection, medication effects or an underlying neurological condition. A clinician uses the description of the event, examination and sometimes tests to work out what happened.

Stay calm, move hard or sharp objects away, cushion the head and loosen tight clothing around the neck. Turn the person onto their side when practical, observe their breathing and time the event. Do not restrain them, put anything in their mouth, or give food, drink or tablets until they are fully alert. Stay with them while confusion settles and record what you saw for the clinician.

Call emergency services if the seizure lasts longer than five minutes, repeats without recovery, causes serious injury, happens in water, or the person has trouble breathing or waking. Seek urgent assessment for a first seizure, pregnancy, diabetes, a significant head injury, fever with neck stiffness, or suspected poisoning or withdrawal. Even a brief unexplained event should be medically reviewed.

Ask what type of event is suspected, whether blood sugar or infection should be checked, which activities need temporary caution, and how to respond if another episode occurs.