What Is Epilepsy ?

Epilepsy is a neurological disease characterized by an enduring predisposition to suffer from epileptic seizures. It is always  accompanied by a variety of social, psychological, cognitive, and neurobiological consequences.

Epilepsy affects approximately 50 million people worldwide, and 80% of patients live in developing countries (Fisher et al., 2005; World Health Organization, 2017).  It is thought that 94% of patients do not receive appropriate treatment (Pal et al, 1998). Approximately 33% do not respond adequately to treatment or are refractory (Kwan & Brodie, 2000; Anyanwu & Motamedi, 2018).

Febrile seizures (FS) are the most common convulsive event during childhood, occurring in 2% to 3% of children.  Approximately 15% to 20% of children and adults with epilepsy have a history of prior FS (Knudsen et al., 1996; Berg & Shinnar, 1996a, b; Hamati‐Haddad & Abou‐About‐Khalil, 1998; Kanemura et al., 2012). 

References

Anyanwu, C., & Motamedi, G. K.(2018). Diagnosis and surgical treatment of drug‐resistant epilepsy. Brain Science, 8, pp. 1–20 (Article)

Berg, A. T., & Shinnar, S. (1996a). Unprovoed seizures in children with febrile seizures: Short term outcome. Neurology, 47, pp. 562–568. (Article)

Berg, A. T., & Shinnar, S. (1996b). Complex febrile seizures. Epilepsia, 37, pp. 126–133 (Article)

Fisher, R., Boas, W., Blume, W., Elger, C., Genton, P., Lee, P., & Engel, J. (2005). Epileptic seizures and epilepsy: definitions proposed by the international league against epilepsy (ILAE) and the International Bureau for Epilepsy (IBE). Epilepsy, 46, pp. 470–472 (Article)

Hamati‐Haddad, A., & Abou‐Khalil, B. (1998). Epilepsy diagnosis and localization in patients with antecedent childhood febrile convulsions. Neurology, 50, pp. 917–922 (Article)

Kanemura, H., Mizorogi, S., Aoyagi, K., Sugita, K., & Aihara, M. (2012). EEG characteristic predict subsequent epilepsy in children with febrile seizure. Brain Development, 34, pp. 302–307 (Article)

Knudsen, F. U., Paerregaard, A., Andersen, R., & Andresen, J. (1996). Long‐Term outcome of prophylaxis for febrile convulsion. Archives of Disease in Childhood, 74, pp. 13–18 (Article)

Kwan, P., & Brodie, M. J. (2000). Early identification of refractory epilepsy. New England Journal of Medicine, 342, pp. 314–319 (Article)

Pal, D. K., Das, T., Chaudhury, G., Johnson, A. L., & Neville, B. G.(1998). Randomised controlled trial to assess acceptability of phenobarbital for childhood epilepsy in rural India. Lancet, 351, pp. 19–23 (Article)

World Health Organization. (2017). Epilepsia. Retrieved from https://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs999/es/. Access: 20/03/2018