What is Epilepsy?
Epilepsy is a common neurological disorder in which the normal activity of brain cells is sometimes disturbed. This can result in strange sensations, emotions and changed behavior. Epilepsy can also cause seizures, muscle spasms and a loss of consciousness.
There is currently no cure for epilepsy, but there are ways to keep seizures under control.
Treatment for seizures is normally anti-epileptic medication, which does not cure epilepsy or the tendency to have seizures but usually does help control the seizure activity. For the people on these drugs, seizures are eliminated in about 50% of cases. Drugs reduce the frequency and/or intensity of seizures in another 30%. The remaining 20% of people have seizures that cannot be brought under control by conventional drug therapy. They may require large doses or more than one drug, or they may be drug-resistant.
In the future, epilepsy may be treated by new forms of electronic stimulation of the brain, implanted devices to deliver medication directly to areas of the brain from which seizures arise, gene therapy, and transplants of immature brain cells to replace damaged or missing neurons.
Epilepsy is a brain disorder that produces abnormal bursts of electrical activity in the brain. If uncontrolled, it results in recurrent seizures that vary in:
• Frequency: Less than 1 per year to many per day
• Form: Different symptoms and signs
• Duration: A few seconds to a few minutes or longer
Canadians living with epilepsy can experience different health and social consequences. With the right care, it is possible to manage epilepsy and limit or even prevent seizures.
What is Epilepsy?
Epilepsy is a long-term (chronic) disease that causes repeated seizures due to abnormal electrical signals produced by damaged brain cells. A burst of uncontrolled electrical activity within brain cells causes a seizure. Seizures can include changes to your awareness, muscle control (your muscles may twitch or jerk), sensations, emotions and behavior. Epilepsy is also called a seizure disorder.
Who Does Epilepsy Affect?
Anyone, of any age, race or sex, can develop epilepsy.
How Common is Epilepsy?
Epilepsy is the most common serious brain disorder worldwide with over 50 million people with the condition; it is especially prevalent in childhood, adolescence and old age. In Canada, 300,000 Canadians live with epilepsy.
What Causes Epilepsy?
Brain function is made possible by millions of tiny electrical charges passing between nerve cells in the brain and to all parts of the body. Epilepsy interrupts this normal pattern of charges with excessive electric discharges of nerve cells (also known as neurons). This can affect a person’s consciousness, movements or sensations for a brief period of time.
