epilepsy than have Parkinson’s, cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, and multiple sclerosis combined; however, patients with epilepsy are given less federal dollars than any of the patients that possess these other neurological conditions.
Epilepsy is an incurable condition, but there are treatment options for those struggling with epilepsy. Different treatments are given depending on the characteristics of the patient and their specific type of epilepsy. These characteristics include the person’s age, how severe the patient’s seizures are and their frequency, and the patient’s medical history and overall health. Medications such as anticonvulsant drugs or generic drugs are used to help control epileptic seizures, and for around 70% of patients on medication, their seizures are more controlled.
The discovery at Imperial College London could eventually result in the addition of new treatment options. The newly-discovered gene network is comprised of 320 genes that the scientists believe play a role in how cells communicate with one another in the brain. The scientist’s results indicate that when a malfunction occurs within the gene network, epilepsy is triggered. Professor Michael Johnson, senior author of the research being conducted at Imperial’s Department of Medicine, thinks that if medications could be found to prevent this network from malfunctioning, new treatments could be made to aid those with epilepsy. Considering that there have not been many new, effective developments for treating epilepsy within the past century, the discovery of this epileptic gene network is quite possibly monumental.