Epilepsy is a condition which causes someone to have repeated spontaneous epileptic fits or seizures. Seizures result from a disruption of brain function which may alter behaviour, consciousness, movement, perception or sensation. There are many types ranging from a brief loss of awareness to major convulsion.

The World Health Organisation assesses epilepsy as the most serious common brain disorder. One in 50 persons has epilepsy and 5% of the population will have a seizure during their lifetime.

Incidence is highest in children and the elderly. The proportion of the population with epilepsy remains fairly constant except in the elderly where the disease is increasing as people live longer.

It was not until the second half of the 19th Century when people began to learn more about epilepsy and medicine that drugs were finally found which had an effect on epileptic seizures.

Today there are about 20 different drugs which can be used to treat the disease. Some 60% of people with epilepsy can become seizure free under modern drug therapy. For another 20%, seizures can be drastically reduced, and only in one fifth of all patients do modern anti-epileptic treatments fail to have any effect.

Due to advances in neuroimaging like MRI, CT, SPECT and PET scanning, safe surgical removal of damaged brain areas that cause seizures is now possible in some cases.

Diagnosis is also improving with better imaging and refinement of epilepsy syndromes.

Furthermore, emerging technologies are providing novel approaches, with genetics giving clues to causes and new treatments.