Epilepsy is a chronic condition produced by temporary changes in
the electrical function of the brain, causing seizures, which
can affect awareness, movement, or sensation. Seizures occur
when clusters of nerve cells in the brain, called neurons,
signal or communicate with each other abnormally. During a
seizure, the neurons' normal pattern of activity is disturbed.
It causes them to fire as many as 500 times per second instead
of the normal rate of about 80 times per second. This can cause
strange sensations, emotions, and behavior, or convulsions,
muscle spasms, and/or loss of consciousness. A diagnosis of
epilepsy is usually not made until a person has a seizure more
than once without a preventable cause. The causes of abnormal
brain wiring and imbalance of neurotransmitters are numerous.
They can include: - Head injury - Brain abnormalities inherited
at birth - Gene abnormalities inherited at birth - Brain injury
at birth - Hypoxia at birth - Loss of neurons in the
hippocampus, also called mesial temporal