Who gets epilepsy, and what causes it?
Epilepsy is not a single syndrome characterized by a short list of symptoms and a few causes – it’s a broad range of brain disorders that involve seizures. For this reason, it’s hard to determine the cause of epilepsy. About 30 percent of people with epilepsy have their first seizure as a young child or adolescent, but epilepsy can develop at any age. Some forms are genetically related, but most types are not. A few people have epilepsy for a short period of their lives, and the disorder disappears on its own. Here are some of the known causes of epilepsy and/or seizures: • Diseases like meningitis or encephalitis • Congenital disease • Birth or pre-birth trauma • Brain injuries or scar tissue from brain operations • Abnormal metabolism, chemical imbalance or allergies • Brain tumors or degenerative brain diseases • Vascular disorders or stroke In seven out of ten cases, however, epilepsy’s cause is unknown.
