Despite the olden history of the disease, and the developing treatment methods to cure the disease, the term is still surrounded by a lot of misconceptions and stigma in some communities. However, the disease is explainable on the basis of science. A factual approach to the subject can help understand it better, differentiate the associated symptoms from myths, and assess the impact of disease on various aspects of life.
Definition
Epilepsy is a chronic neurological disease, characterized by episodes of seizures, recurrent in nature. At least two seizures, which are unprovoked in origin, and occurring with a minimum gap of 24 hours, are required to form a diagnosis. [1]
Prevalence
Epilepsy is a fairly common disorder of the brain. It affects people irrespective of age, gender, geographical location and race. However, certain trends in the prevalence are seen in cases of greater exposure to the risk factors. By gender, the male population is more at risk due to exposure to certain precipitating factors. In a lot of low-socioeconomic groups, epilepsy cases in females may be masked due to some cultural reasons, which adds ambiguity to the statistical analysis. Studies relate prevalence of epilepsy in children and elderly population. This can also be explained on the basis of certain medical risk factors which affect these two age-groups more than the adult population. As per recent advancement in tackling the pre-natal complications, the rates of epilepsy in infants have considerably decreased. Epilepsy is more prevalent in low to mediocre income groups, and consequently, in under-developed and developing countries. In these countries, the prevalence is also complicated with cases going undiagnosed, or diagnosed cases going untreated. Hence, the chances of remission of disease are very high.