Essay On Epilepsy

What is epilepsy? How has it been perceived throughout human history? When was it finally accepted as a brain disease rather than a result of demonic influence? According to the Mayo Clinic, “epilepsy is a central nervous system disorder in which the nerve cell activity in your brain is disturbed, causing a seizure”, and “about 1 in every 100 people in the United States will have an unprovoked seizure once in their life”. (Mayo Clinic Staff, 2013) Today it is acknowledged that epilepsy can develop after a brain injury or due to birth defects that can affect neurotransmitters among other nerve related chemicals. (National…, 2014) Symptoms include confusion, loss of consciousness, and uncontrollable jerking of arms and legs. Epilepsy is diagnosed after a person experiences more than one seizure and has neurological and

This method of diagnosis was used to avoid buying epileptic slaves. Those who had “the falling sickness” were deemed as possessed by the devil, possibly due to sins and wrongdoings. (Pierce, 2002) One more oddball method of diagnosis around this time was to diagnose chronic or treatable epilepsy by drinking acacia; vomiting after consumption would signal that he or she had incurable seizures. After the Renaissance, it became known that the disease is a physical problem and not supernatural. From then on, sedatives were some of the first commercialized drugs for treatment including castor, or treating with skull scrapings of a person of the opposite sex, as well as mugwort flower which was a cure-all at the time. But even after epilepsy was deemed a medical issue, epileptics were socially exiled for their difference. In the 19th century bromides, barbiturates, and phenytoin were discovered and the former two are still used today and the latter had nonsedative effects. (Tomkin,