What is epilepsy?
Epilepsy is a condition that affects the brain. When someone has an epilepsy, their symptoms include a tendency to have epileptic seizures, plus often mental health illnesses, cognitive dysfunction, and more.
Seizures are one part of epilepsy. Other common symptoms include depression, anxiety, and mood disorders.
Common accompaniments to epilepsy are intellectual disability, cerebral palsy, autism, stroke, and dementia.
Anyone can have a one-off seizure, but this doesn’t always mean they have an epilepsy. Epilepsy is usually only diagnosed if someone has had more than one seizure, and doctors think it is likely they could have more.
Epilepsy can start at any age and there are many different types. Some types of epilepsy last for a limited time and the person eventually stops having seizures. But for many people epilepsy is a life-long condition.
What are epileptic seizures?
“Electrical activity is happening in our brain all the time, as the cells in the brain send messages to each other. A seizure happens when there is a sudden burst of intense electrical activity in the brain. This causes a temporary disruption to the way the brain normally works. The result is an epileptic seizure.
There are many different types of seizure. What happens to someone during a seizure depends on which part of their brain is affected. During some types of seizure the person may remain alert and aware of what’s going on around them, and with other types they may lose awareness. They may have unusual sensations, feelings or movements. Or they may go stiff, fall to the floor and jerk.”
How common is epilepsy?
Epilepsy is the fourth most common neurological condition in the world after migraine, stroke, and Alzheimer’s disease. It can affect any person irrespective of age, sex, sexuality, religion, economic or geographical location.
More than75 million people in the world have epilepsy and 80% of these people live in developing countries.
Epilepsy Action Australia, 2020
In the UK around 1% of people (Epilepsy Action, 2019) have epilepsy whereas in Kenya it is nearly double that at 1.8% of people. The prevalence of epilepsy is higher amongst those from a lower socioeconomic background and amongst those from developing countries.”
- Ministry of Health, Kenya National Guidelines for the Management of Epilepsy, 2016
Epilepsy is more common in children (1 in 220) and 20% of those newly diagnosed are over the age of 65 but epilepsy can be diagnosed at any age.
The number of those being diagnosed is likely increasing, due to:
An increased awareness and understanding amongst the general population
An increased awareness and understanding amongst medical professionals
An increase in the human population
Only about 52% of people are seizure free (UK) but up to 70% are likely to be should they get the right treatment.
30% of people with epilepsy are not able to have their seizures controlled with drugs and they have what is called refractory epilepsy.
Those located in remote areas or developing countries are less likely to have controlled seizures to a lack of access to medication.
