Nursery World - A doctor's diary ... Epilepsy

Dr Raj Thakkar describes the different types of epilepsy, and the causes, treatment and monitoring of the condition.

'Doctor, my son has been diagnosed with epilepsy. I need you to explain it to me.'

Whole journals and textbooks have been dedicated to the epilepsies and a short article barely touches the surface of this highly complex neurological disease. There are several different types and many different causes, making the subject potentially confusing, even for doctors. This article does not discuss febrile convulsions.

Up to 415,000 people suffer from epilepsy in England and every GP will have patients with it on their registers. This equates to about five to ten in every 1,000 people being affected. In addition, there will be a significant number of people who are wrongly diagnosed with epilepsy, and equally, people with a wrong alternative diagnosis. This suggests that, perhaps counter-intuitively, epilepsy is not always easy to diagnose.

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