Epilepsy is a chronic neurological disorder that is characterized by an immediate and disorderly discharge of brain neurons, resulting in recurrent unprovoked seizures. Approximately 1 percent of the population is affected by the disorder.

Types of Epilepsy

Many different types of epilepsy have been recognized. Most of them can be categorized in these two groups:

• Idiopathic epilepsy: These types have an uncertain cause, most likely they’re due to a mutation in an inherited gene, more than a dozen of which have been identified during the last decades.
• Symptomatic epilepsy: These types have a known cause. A wide variety of brain disease or injuries, such as birth trauma, brain infections, brain tumors and stroke can result in symptomatic epilepsy.

Types of Seizure

The seizures that accompany epilepsy, can be divided in generalized and partial seizures:

• Generalized seizures: Typically result in loss of consciousness, can cause several behavioral changes, including convulsions or changes in muscle tone. Arise when there is excessive electrical activity all over the brain.
• Partial seizures: May occur with maintained consciousness, can produce localized visual, auditory and sensory disturbances. This type of seizure arises when there is excessive electrical activity in a limited area of the brain.

Treatments

Three sorts of treatment can be discerned:

• Antiseizure medication: The principal targets of these medications are the ion-channels permeable to sodium or calcium and synapses using the neurotransmitter GABA, which inhibits electrical discharge in the brain. Identification of the aforementioned mutant genes could possibly provide new targets for antiseizure medication. Most of the time, epilepsy can be controlled by an antiseizure drug. Sometimes a combination of drugs is required. In more than half of the patients, complete control of the condition can be achieved. In another quarter, a significant improvement in life quality can be noticed. Hopefully, these new drugs that target the mutant genes, will provide complete control in additional patients.
• Surgery: This should only be considered for patients that do not respond to medication and shouls ba applied at specialized medical centers only, since it requires precise location of the brain area where the seizures originate. After surgery, about 90 percent of the patients experience significant improvement or even complete remission of the seizures.
• Electrical stimulation: A relatively new form of treatment to treat difficultly controllable seizures, a device similar to a pacemaker is implanted. This delivers small bursts of electrical energy to the brain via the vagus nerve on the side of the neck.