Normal
brain function is made possible by millions of tiny electrical charges
passing across nerve cells in the brain and to all parts of the body.
In a seizure, this normal pattern may be interrupted by intermittent bursts
of electrical energy that are much more intense than usual. These 'storms'
affect the delicate systems responsible for the brain's electrical energy,
and may affect a person's consciousness, awareness, movement and bodily
posture for a short time. Normal brain function cannot return until the
electrical bursts subside. In a nutshell, epilepsy is the tendency to
have repeated seizures.
According to the National Society for Epilepsy, epilepsy affects at least
300,000 people in the UK - just over 59,000 of these people are children
under the age of 16. Epilepsy affects 1 in every 100 children. It is the
most common serious neurological condition in the world and can affect
anyone at any time in their life - it has no
...it
has no respect for age, sex, race, or social class...
respect for age, sex, race, or social class. Seizures
tend to develop in childhood
or by late adolescence, but the likelihood of developing epilepsy
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rises again
after the age of 65. One in twenty people will have a single seizure at
sometime in their life. You can develop epilepsy as a result of the brain
being injured in some way, perhaps as a result of severe head injury,
difficulties at birth or a serious infection which affects the brain,
such
Daisy at home
as meningitis or encephalitis,
a stroke or a tumour. Problems with a child's metabolism or faulty chromosomes
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