“Epilepsy is the most common serious disorder that affects the brain. One person in 20
will have an epileptic seizure sometime in their life and 50 in 100,000 people develop
Epilepsy every year.....
“Whilst two thirds of those who develop epilepsy have the condition controlled with
medication, the remainder do not do so well and continue to have seizures.
“With the mapping of the human genetic code, much current effort is going into
Understanding how variations in the genetic make-up of individual people cause them
to be at a high or low risk of developing different types of epilepsy seizures.
Of even more more importance is the understanding of how individual genetic
make-up determines whether particular medications are likely to be effective or not,
And whether they are likely to have adverse effects or not.
