Scottish Epilepsy Initiative
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- £4300 raised by team from Philips Lighting Team 20/08/2010
- Local support for Making Contact in Orkney 20/08/2010
- Scottish Epilepsy Initiative launch the TEA Room 22/07/2010
- We've done it! 05/03/2010
- Generosity from customers at Asda Bishopbriggs 30/01/2010
- Ceilidh at City Chambers 29/01/2010
- The Seers Support SEI 04/12/2009
- Aberbrothock Skea Trust support Scottish Epilepsy Initiative 01/11/2009
- Take That fans dig deep for SEI 21/10/2009
- Airport staff get their socks on 21/10/2009
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History and Background
Yesterday
Epilepsy – derived from the Greek word epilamabanein, meaning ‘to seize’ or ‘to attack’ was first recorded in a Babylonian treatise discovered in south Turkey and dated around 700 BC. The disorder was also recognised in classical Chinese medical texts at about the same time. Around 400 BC, the Greek physician, Hippocrates, described epilepsy as ‘the sacred disease’, but most cultures subsequently placed a supernatural interpretation on its unique constellation of symptoms and signs. It was only in 1875 that the English neurologist John Hughlings Jackson recognised a seizure as being due to disordered brain electrical activity.
Today
Epilepsy remains the most common serious neurological disorder in the world. Although this distressing condition remits in some people, many others will have seizures throughout their lives. It affects all ages and crosses all geographical and social boundaries. There have been a number of scientific and sociological revolutions surrounding this common and yet previously much-neglected disorder.
These have been fuelled by:
- better understanding of the pathophysiology of seizure propagation and generation
- greater appreciation of a widening range of seizure types and epilepsy syndromes
- increasing development of more precise and accurate brain imaging techniques
- recent licensing of new antiepileptic drugs with different mechanisms of action
- availability of epilepsy surgery programmes and novel brain stimulation techniques
Tomorrow
Many problems remain, however. The provision of clinical services for initial diagnosis, for appropriate choice of treatment and, in particular, for longer term follow-up varies widely across Scotland. Small numbers of surgical operations for epilepsy are dispersed among three centres (Glasgow, Edinburgh and Dundee) and investigative facilities and expertise are scattered across many different hospital departments. Research is hampered by inadequate financial support and a dearth of facilities.
Despite these limitations, advances in the understanding, investigation and treatment of epilepsy are continuing apace. Many more people with epilepsy can expect to have their seizures controlled by drugs without debilitating side effects. A wider range of medical and surgical strategies are becoming available to optimise treatment for those with more severe seizure disorders. The development of potentially revolutionary therapies will require close liaison to co-ordinate scientific theory with clinical implementation and thereby improve the lives of many more people with epilepsy.
This website is for information purposes only; we do not give medical advice.