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What is epilepsy?

What is epilepsy?

Epilepsy is a chronic disease of the brain and all people in the world, can be affected by epilepsy. Epilepsy is characterized by recurrent seizures that are stereotypical and repetitive. During a seizure, the body typically suffers from brief limb convulsions, whether partial or generalized, and sometimes loss of consciousness and urinary incontinence.


Seizures are caused by abnormal firing of brain cells. The vast majority of the brain, especially the cortex, can be the site of abnormal discharges. Seizures can take a variety of forms, brief loss of consciousness or muscle reflexes, persistent states. The frequency of seizures also varies greatly and may range from one seizure per year, or multiple seizures per day.


One seizure does not mean there is epilepsy; ten percent of the world's population will have a seizure. Epilepsy is defined as two or more unprovoked seizures. One of the first recognized conditions in the world was epilepsy, with records dating back to the fourth millennium B.C. At that time, people were fearful of epilepsy and would misunderstand and discriminate against people with epilepsy, feeling it was a social stigma. Today, in most countries where epilepsy is not well recognized, the notoriety of the disease is still present and can even seriously affect the patient's daily life.


Instructor: Meng Heng, Associate Chief Physician, M.D., M.S. Supervisor, Department of Neurology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Jinan University, Jinan, China. Deputy Director of Epilepsy Center, The First Affiliated Hospital of Jinan University.

Specialties: epilepsy, cerebrovascular disease, encephalitis and dizziness and headaches.

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Epilepsy, as a neurological disorder, jeopardizes the health of many people, and also brings some difficulties as well as life stress to many families, so what exactly is epilepsy?

Epilepsy is not a single disease entity; it is a collective term for chronic diseases of the brain that have different etiologies and also different clinical manifestations. Epileptic seizures are caused by abnormal discharges in the brain, and are therefore characterized by episodic, recurrent, and transient loss of central nervous system function.

Its clinical manifestation is seizures, but the frequency of seizures varies widely among individuals, with one seizure a year, one or more per day being possible.

As for the forms of epileptic seizures, there are various kinds of seizures, the most common of which are generalized tonic clonic seizures, which are the twitching of limbs, clenching of teeth and loss of consciousness that we often see. In addition, there are also different types of seizure forms such as tonic seizures, catatonic seizures, myoclonic seizures, clonic seizures and atonic seizures.

Epilepsy, commonly known as crohns and epilepsy. Epilepsy is a sudden, recurrent, transient malfunction of the brain nerves due to abnormal discharges of neurons in the brain, and is epileptic in nature, that is, the symptoms appear suddenly and stop suddenly. Seizures are mainly characterized by foaming at the mouth, straightening of the limbs, tilting of the horns of the mouth, falling to the ground and convulsions. For example, when walking or eating, suddenly fall to the ground, convulsions, after a few minutes to return to normal; children's epilepsy can be manifested as a sudden daze, lasting a few seconds to return to normal. Epilepsy is not only seizure but also recurrent. It means that after the first seizure, there will be a second, third or even multiple seizures after a period of time.

According to the introduction of Zhou Jian, an expert from Sanbo Brain Hospital of Capital Medical University, the diagnosis of epilepsy is clinically confirmed and does not require any physical examination. If the patient has the three characteristics of ictal, recurrent and paroxysmal, and the possibility of hysteria is ruled out, the patient can be diagnosed with epilepsy. Patients with epilepsy, including those with more than one seizure and repeated seizures at intervals of more than 24 hours, as well as some patients with only one seizure that causes structural lesions on intracranial imaging, are also diagnosed with epilepsy. Epilepsy should be treated as soon as it is diagnosed.

Epilepsy is not scary, although epilepsy is difficult to treat, it is not incurable. As long as the diagnosis is clear, go to the regular hospital in time, the vast majority of patients can control seizures.

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Epilepsy is commonly known as epilepsy, also known as crohnsIt is a common disease of the nervous system. According to research, the prevalence of epilepsy is 0.5%, the annual incidence rate is (50-70)/100,000, and the mortality rate is (1.3-3.6)/100,000. There are more than 6 million epilepsy patients in China, at least 1.5 million patients with refractory epilepsy, and 650-700,000 new cases each year. Epilepsy can be seen in all age groups, with adolescence and old age being the two peak stages of incidence.Epilepsy is a chronic brain disease characterized by transient central nervous system malfunction caused by highly synchronized abnormal discharges of encephalopathic neurons due to different etiological factors, and is a common cause of seizure-induced loss of consciousness.

Depending on the location of the abnormally discharging neurons and the extent of the wave of abnormal discharges, patients may exhibit sensory, motor, consciousness, mental, behavioral, and autonomic dysfunction. Each seizure or course of each seizure is called an epileptic seizure.

symptomsSymptoms of epilepsy take many forms, but all share the following common features

1、Episodic Symptoms occur suddenly, last for a period of time and then recover quickly, with normal intervals

2、Transient Each seizure lasts for a few seconds or minutes, rarely more than 30 minutes (except for status epilepticus).

3、Stereotypicality The clinical manifestations of each episode are almost the same

4、Repeatability After the first attack, there will be a second or more attacks after different intervals of time

Disease knowledge guide

1, the patient should have sufficient rest, the environment is quiet and suitable, develop good living habits, pay attention to the combination of labor and leisure

2、Give a light diet, small and frequent meals, avoid spicy and stimulating food, quit smoking and alcohol.

3. Avoid triggering factors such as exertion, lack of sleep, fright, hunger, alcohol, constipation, emotional excitement, pregnancy and childbirth, strong sound and light stimulation, fright, mental arithmetic, reading, writing, chess, external ear canal stimulation, prolonged television viewing, and bathing.

Epilepsy is a treatable disease with a good prognosis for most patients. However, the prognosis of different types of epilepsy varies greatly, and there are several forms of prognosis, including spontaneous remission, cured after treatment, controlled by long-term medication, and development of refractory epilepsy.


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Epilepsy is a chronic recurrent transient brain dysfunction syndrome, one of the common diseases of the nervous system, common in children and the elderly, the symptoms are prone to recurrent seizures, which brings a heavy burden to the society, the family and the individual.

Epilepsy is not a single disease entity, but rather a chronic brain disease state with different etiological bases and varying clinical manifestations, but characterized by recurrent seizures in common.

1. Seizures, which are transient clinical manifestations caused by abnormal excessive and synchronized discharges of neurons in the brain, can be divided into induced seizures and non-induced seizures.

2. Epilepsy, a brain disorder characterized by a persistent epileptogenic tendency. At least two seizures, or 1 seizure combined with a definite epileptogenic tendency, are required for the diagnosis of epilepsy.

3. Epilepsy syndrome refers to a group of epilepsy disorders consisting of a specific set of clinical manifestations and electroencephalographic (EEG) changes, with emphasis on EEG-clinical syndromes, such as temporal lobe epilepsy, frontal lobe epilepsy, benign epilepsy in children with central temporal spikes, and myoclonic epilepsy in adolescents. It is important to note that not all patients are definitively diagnosed with a particular epilepsy syndrome.

4. Epileptic encephalopathy, defined as progressive neuropsychiatric dysfunction or degeneration due to frequent seizures and/or epileptiform discharges. This concept emphasizes progressive neurological decline due to abnormalities of epilepsy itself.

The ultimate goal of treating epilepsy is not only to control seizures, but also to improve the quality of life of the patient. With advances in medicine, a variety of treatment options have been developed for epilepsy, which can be optimally selected for different situations or comprehensive interventions that focus on the long-term comprehensive management of the disease. The main epilepsy treatment options include medication, surgery, ketogenic diet and neuromodulation therapy. Pharmacotherapy is the mainstay of epilepsy treatment and is often the preferred option. The choice is based on seizure classification, epilepsy syndromes and individual patient's condition.

In conclusion, epilepsy is a chronic disease for which social attention, understanding and support still need to be improved. With the understanding of the nature of the disease, combined with new diagnostic and therapeutic protocols, it is crucial to strengthen standardized and comprehensive diagnosis and treatment, control seizures while paying attention to patients' social functioning and psychological status, and provide long-term comprehensive management.

The authoritative interpretation of Pharmaceutical Affairs, unauthorized reproduction, plagiarism will be punished.

I'm Dr. Senior, let me tell you my opinion, I hope my opinion is helpful to you

What is epilepsy?

Epilepsy, also commonly referred to as "crohns" or "sheep epilepsy", is a chronic disease caused by sudden abnormal discharges of neurons in the brain, resulting in transient brain dysfunction.

Incidence of epilepsy

According to the latest data, there are currently about 50 million or so people with epilepsy around the world. We currently have about 9 million epilepsy patients, of which about 1.3 million are refractory epilepsy patients, accounting for 30% of the total number. The overall prevalence rate in China is 7 per 1,000, and the number of new patients is around 400,000 per year. Nowadays epilepsy has become the second most common disease in neurology after headache.

What factors can cause epilepsy?

1. Genetic factors:In some families with a genetic history, there is a chance that the child will develop epilepsy as well.

2. Mental factors:Many people get epilepsy because of a sudden shock or mood swings. And epilepsy can also be triggered by a prolonged period of negative energy.

3. Brain damage factors:In some cases, brain injuries lead to structural and metabolic abnormalities in the brain, which can also be a factor in the development of epilepsy.

4. Metabolic disorders in the body.In children and young adults, hypoglycemia produced by islet cell tumors is sometimes prolonged with epilepsy as the primary manifestation. Severe electrolyte disorders and water intoxication can induce seizures.

5. Congenital factors:Such as chromosomal malformations, congenital hydrocephalus, microcephaly, hypoplasia of the corpus callosum, hypoplasia of the cerebral cortex, or insufficient cerebral blood supply at birth.

6. Bacterial infection factors:It is seen in various types of bacterial meningitis, brain abscesses, sarcoidosis, viral encephalitis, and parasitic diseases such as porcine cysts, schistosomes, and toxoplasma gondii, which can also cause epilepsy.

How are all epilepsies treated?

1. Treatment guidelines:Currently, medically speaking, the treatment of epilepsy can be categorized into five areas: seizure control, etiological treatment, surgical treatment, general hygiene and prevention. The most important of these is seizure control, and current treatment is based on medication.

2. Medication:Antiepileptic drugs are selected clinically according to the type of seizure, and the doctor will choose a specific medication regimen based on the patient's actual condition. Once a drug and dosage are found that can completely control seizures, it should be applied without interruption. Generally, the medication is started at a small dose and then gradually increased so that the minimum effective dose that can control seizures without producing toxic reactions is appropriate. It also follows the principle of incremental replacement of old drugs with new ones. At present, most advocate the use of a drug, confirm the failure of single-drug treatment, before adding a second drug. Commonly used drugs include carbamazepine, oxcarbazepine, sodium valproate, lamotrigine, kaplan, phenobarbital, clonazepam, topiramate, gabapentin, phenytoin sodium and so on.

One more principle to remember!!! Never stop your medication on your own accord. My brother was feeling better for a while, so he stopped taking his medication on his own accord, and more than a year after he stopped it, he relapsed and was even worse than before. So, don't make yourself feel like you're not sick anymore. Be sure to cooperate with the treatment according to the doctor's instructions !!!!

3. Surgical treatment:Stereotactic destruction of areas of the brain associated with seizures, anterior corpus callosotomy, or chronic cerebellar stimulation is feasible for refractory epilepsy that fails to respond to medication.

4. Other treatments:Neuromodulation for refractory epilepsy Vagus nerve stimulation treatment is mainly applicable to patients with refractory epilepsy that cannot be controlled by antiepileptic drugs, epilepsy that is not suitable for craniotomy, or epilepsy patients who are not willing to undergo craniotomy. Transcranial magnetic stimulation is suitable for patients with epilepsy that is not well treated by drugs or surgery or cannot be treated surgically.

Treatment is only part of the equation, along with post-treatment care and self-adjustment is also very important.

final words

Without realizing that I have written so much, my head recalls another image that makes my heart ache. Last Spring Festival, my little brother, who suffers from epilepsy, made a mistake and his family asked him to write a review. A few of the paragraphs read. "Just let me die, okay? I know I can't be cured, and I can only take medicine and pills every day, which will only waste the family's money.' "I know my family is doing this for my own good, but don't you know what everyone thinks of me? Thinking that I'm a sick person who will faint at any time, they all stay away from me." "Because I'm sick, I can't read at all, I can't read!" "Just let me jump off a building, let me leave this world!" "I really don't want to take my medicine, let me die."

When I think of these words every time, it's as hard as if I've been stabbed by a needle inside. It hurts so much that every time I try to persuade my little brother, but it's all good for a while and then I fall back into a slump.

Everyone goes through birth, old age, sickness and death, and everyone can't avoid getting sick. They are the same, in fact, they are also eager to be cared for, eager to be loved, eager to play and hang out with everyone, eager to take medicine, and eager to be healthy! Thank you Headline for having this campaign, let's all smile at them together!!!! And I hope I can help more people with these presentations, may everyone be healthy! May everyone be treated gently!

I am senior doctor, clinical practice for more than ten years, I hope to use my little power to help more people!!!!

【2018-01-29 Chinese Medical Science Answer】As the question, thanks for the invitation, to answer this question, in fact, to understand the pathogenesis of epilepsy, there are a lot of patients suffering from epilepsy pain and suffering in life, they endure physical suffering at the same time also by the people around them to discriminate against them, thinking that they may have some kind of horrible disease, all of these are caused by a lack of understanding of epilepsy.

1. Initiation of epileptiform discharges Abnormal neuronal discharges are the electrophysiological basis of epileptogenesis. The membrane potential of neurons in epileptogenic foci is different from that of normal neurons, with a paroxysmal depolarizing drift after each action potential, accompanied by high-amplitude, high-frequency spike discharges. Abnormal neuronal discharges may be due to structural and functional changes in ion channels caused by abnormal ion channel proteins and neurotransmitters or modulators, resulting in abnormal transmembrane movement of ions.

2. Propagation of epileptic discharges Abnormal high-frequency discharges repeatedly induce synchronous discharges in peripheral and distant neurons through synaptic connections and post-tonic chemotaxis, thus causing continuous propagation of abnormal potentials. If the abnormal discharges are confined to one region of the cerebral cortex, partial seizures occur; if the abnormal discharges are transmitted in a local feedback loop for a long time, partial seizures persist; if the abnormal discharges not only affect the ipsilateral hemisphere but also spread to the contralateral hemisphere, secondary generalized seizures occur; and if the abnormal discharges are projected to the bilateral cerebral cortex and inhibited in the reticulospinal tracts, generalized tonic-clonic seizures occur. If the abnormal discharges are widely projected to both cortices and when the reticulospinal tracts are inhibited, a generalized seizure is manifested.

3. Termination of epileptic discharges The possible mechanism is the active inhibition of various layers of the brain, i.e., during seizures, huge postsynaptic potentials are generated in the epileptic foci, which activate a negative feedback mechanism to keep the cell membranes in a prolonged state of hyperdepolarization, inhibit the spread of abnormal discharges, and at the same time reduce the afferent impulses of the foci to contribute to the termination of the seizure discharges.

The etiology of epilepsy is complex and the pathologic changes are diverse, with hippocampal sclerosis being the typical change. Hippocampal sclerosis is characterized by atrophy and hardening of the hippocampus; histologically, bilateral hippocampal sclerosis lesions are asymmetric, and one side of the hippocampus is often found to have obvious hippocampal sclerosis while the other hippocampus has only a mild neuronal loss. Mossy fiber outgrowths are another important pathology in patients with hippocampal sclerosis. In addition, patients with hippocampal sclerosis may have abnormalities of the dentate gyrus.

Hope you can help, welcome to pay attention to the "Chinese medical science platform" headlines, to get more professional and original medical science knowledge, this article for the original content, unauthorized refused to reproduce.

Thank you for inviting Wu Yibo, a member of the Chinese Popular Science Writers Association, to answer your questions.

Simply put, epilepsy is a multi-causal disorder of the central nervous system with a high prevalence.


Epilepsy is primarilyA sudden, recurrent, and transient malfunction of the central nervous system caused by excessive neuronal discharges in the brain that is temporary, abrupt, and recurrent in nature.The main manifestations are sudden loss of consciousness, convulsions of the limbs, mental and behavioral disorders.

What are the treatments for epilepsy?

The treatment of epilepsy consists of two main categories:Pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic treatments.

Pharmacological treatments mainly include: pregabalin, midazolam and immunotherapy

Pregabalin for partial seizuresPregabalin is approved for partial seizure treatment in several countries. Relevant studies have shown that pregabalin monotherapy for the treatment of patients with newly diagnosed partial epilepsy is similarly tolerated to lamotrigine, but less clinically effective.

High-dose midazolam for refractory epilepsy Midazolam is a commonly used medication for refractory epilepsy, which is effective in completely controlling refractory seizures within an average of 45 minutes, and does not significantly inhibit blood pressure, heart rhythm, or respiration; and the patient regains full consciousness in about 1.6 hours after stopping the drug, which is safer. In addition, high-dose continuous intravenous infusion of midazolam is more effective than low-dose in reducing seizure rates and patient mortality.

immunotherapyImmunotherapy controls seizures and prevents cognitive impairment in facultative brachial dystonia epilepsy.

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Non-pharmacological treatments include:Trigeminal nerve stimulation and repetitive electrical nerve stimulation.

Trigeminal Nerve Stimulation There is no consensus on the effectiveness and safety of external trigeminal nerve stimulation for the treatment of refractory epilepsy.

Repetitive Electrical Neurostimulation Repetitive electrical neurostimulation devices provide responsive cortical stimulation that can safely and consistently reduce seizures.

Overall, epilepsy is a disease of the central nervous system, and its treatment consists of two main categories: pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic.

Question Answered by: Jiang Zeyu, School of Pharmacy, Shandong University Reviewed by: Wu Yibo

Epilepsy is a chronic disease of the brain, characterized by recurrent seizures; seizures of course have a continuous status epilepticus; if prolonged seizures may lead to neurological dysfunction, such as mental retardation, paralysis, and other serious consequences, and even worse, may lead to life-threatening damage to organs.

The essence of epilepsy is repeated episodes of abnormal brain discharges. The brain controls the body's muscles by means of electrical nerve signals, and the abnormal discharges can cause some very strange symptoms such as muscle twitching, rigidity or loss of consciousness, etc. Seizures can be very frightening. In addition to the damage done to the baby during an acute attack, in the long term there are lasting changes in the brain and serious neurobiological, psycho-cognitive and social consequences.

It only takes one seizure to be diagnosed as epilepsy.

If you want to categorize epilepsy, it can be divided into partial seizures and generalized seizures according to the symptoms during seizures. According to the characteristics of seizures, they can be divided into simple, complex partial and generalized seizures, and generalized seizures can be divided into tonic, paroxysmal spasm, catatonic, myoclonic, atonic and so on, and there are also some seizures that cannot be categorized into the above categories, so they are included in the third category, from which we can see that epilepsy is very complicated. Some epilepsies with the same symptoms can be classified as "epileptic syndromes"; in addition, febrile convulsions and other convulsions are included in special syndromes.

Once a seizure has occurred you need to go to hospital as soon as possible to confirm the diagnosis and then start treatment. Early antiepileptic treatment can bring 90% of children with epilepsy under control, so the sooner the better.

In addition to medication, systematic life management for babies with epilepsy is needed, such as diet, exercise, school life and so on, to find triggering factors and try to avoid them.

It's best not to take your baby swimming, biking, etc. until the symptoms of epilepsy are effectively controlled, as a seizure can happen at any time.

Of course parents need to have confidence in controlling their baby's epilepsy, when mom has confidence baby has confidence. zj

To comprehensively understand the knowledge of epilepsy disease, epilepsy disease is a neurological chronic disease, clinically it has a variety of types of morbidity, morbidity symptoms have thousands of, according to the different causes of the onset of each patient and the physical condition, but also led to a variety of causes of the disease. Therefore, after learning about epilepsy, you can't judge on your own whether it is epilepsy or other types of diseases, you need to go to a regular professional hospital for a comprehensive epilepsy examination to confirm whether it is epilepsy, and at the same time to clarify the cause of the disease foci for targeted treatment is the key.

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