Origin Of Epilepsy Essay

History of Epilepsy: The disease epilepsy has existed for thousands of years but only in the past hundred years or so has it begun to be understood. The only symptom of epilepsy is the epileptic seizure and anyone who has experienced or seen such a seizure knows this experience to be frightening and strange especially without the knowledge of modern science. The earliest mention of epilepsy begins with the Babylonians[1] . They believed it to be caused by the presence of demons that infected a particular individual. The Greeks have also records of epilepsy and termed it as “Sacred Disease”[2]. The Greeks believed that epilepsy was the result of a curse from the gods delivered for the offense of the goddess Selene. It was believed that if

Regarding the delineation of the epileptic mechanisms, the proof that epilepsy derives from the brain came from the work of physiologist Fritsch (1838–1927) and psychiatrist Hitzig (1838–1907); in their paper entitled “On the Electric Excitability of the Cerebrum” they presented experiments in which they provoked seizures by electric stimulation in the brain cortex of dogs[5]. The work, however, of John Hughling Jackson (1835–1911) set the scientific base of epileptology .Jackson studied epilepsy on pathological and anatomical basis. His Study of Convulsions was the culmination of his research stressing the existence of localised lesions on cortex involved in epileptic convulsions. In 1873, Jackson gave the following definition for epilepsy: “Epilepsy is the name for occasional, sudden, excessive, rapid and local discharges of grey matter”[6]. In 1930’s the first method for testing the electrical hypothesis for epilepsy was the invention of EEG by Hans Berger which proved the origin of seizure to be brain[7]. Ten years later the first animal model for epilepsy was developed allowing the disease to be studied. Besides the first drug to treat epilepsy was developed (Janz et al). After this a variety of drugs and other treatments were