What is Epilepsy?

Epilepsy is a neurological condition caused by sudden brief changes in the brain's electrical balance. When there are excess electrical discharges in the brain, seizures occur. It is not a disease, but a symptom of an underlying neurological disorder. This disturbance affects the brain's normal functions and produces changes in a person's movement, behavior or consciousness. Seizures generally last from a few seconds to a few minutes.

Epilepsy is often called a "seizure disorder." Both terms are used to describe recurring seizures.

Epilepsy is not a disease, mental illness or a sign of low intelligence. It is not contagious. Epilepsy is generally a chronic and/or lifelong condition.

There are at least 30 types of seizures. More than 2.7 million people in the US and 40 million worldwide have some form of epilepsy. In Central Ohio over 35,000 people have this disorder. A large number of children and adults have undetected or untreated epilepsy.

One in every 10 Americans will have at least one seizure in their lives, though in most cases they do not actually develop epilepsy. Nonetheless about 200,000 cases of epilepsy are diagnosed nationwide every year. Approximately 1 to 2 percent of the population has epilepsy/seizure disorders. Which is about the same number of people who have cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis and Parkinson's disease combined.

A person could have a seizure at any time during his or her life. Epilepsy strikes most often among the very young and the very old. Epilepsy currently affects more that 326,000 children under the age of fifteen and more that 90,000 of them have severe seizures that cannot be adequately treated.

The number of cases in the elderly is beginning to soar as the baby boom generation approached retirement age, currently more that 570,000 adults aged 65 and above have the disorder.

An estimated 25,000 to 50,000 person's will die from seizures and related causes, including status epilepticus (non-stop seizures), sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP), drowning and other accidents.