These can include sedatives, tranquilisers, sleeping tablets and medications for epilepsy. Before the day of EEG, medications that can affect brain activity may be ceased, but this is not usually necessary.After that, the doctor or laboratory will advise the patients of the following: It remains an important adjunct in the detection of temporal lobe involvement in encephalitis, for example due to herpes infection.īefore the test, a complete medical history will be taken by the doctor ordering the test to determine if the EEG is really necessary and indicated.

Much less frequently nowadays, to localise suspected lesions of the brain such as tumour, inflammation, infection, or vascular events like stroke.To monitor brain activity when a person is under general anaesthesia.To evaluate cognitive impairment and dementia.The assessment of impaired consciousness or altered mental state.The test can help classify the type of epilepsy and also differentiate it from non-epileptic events. However a normal EEG does not exclude the diagnosis of epilepsy. As an aid to the diagnosis of epilepsy: This is the most useful and important test in confirming a diagnosis of epilepsy.They are picked up by the electrodes on the surface of the scalp, and therefore the standard test may not be able to show smaller activity that occurs deep within the brain.Īn EEG is done for the following reasons: The waveforms in the EEG are generated by impulses near the communication between neurons or nerves in the brain.

Eeg normal vs epilepsy