Common drugs involved include: antidepressants, antipsychotics, cocaine, insulin, and the local anaesthetic lidocaine. Difficulties with withdrawal seizures commonly occurs after prolonged alcohol or sedative use, a condition known as delirium tremens. In people who are at risk of developing epileptic seizures, common herbal medicines such as ephedra, ginkgo biloba and wormwood can provoke seizures. Infections
Infection with the pork tapeworm, which can cause neurocysticercosis, is the cause of up to half of epilepsy cases in areas of the world where the parasite is common. Parasitic infections such as cerebral malaria. In Nigeria this is one of the most common causes of seizures among children under five years of age. Infection, such as encephalitis or meningitis

Stress
Stress can induce seizures in people with epilepsy, and is a risk factor for developing epilepsy. Severity, duration, and time at which stress occurs during development all contribute to frequency and susceptibility to developing epilepsy. It is one of the most frequently self-reported triggers in patients with epilepsy.Stress exposure results in hormone release that mediates its effects in the brain. These hormones act on both excitatory and inhibitory neural synapses, resulting in hyper-excitability of neurons in the brain. The hippocampus is known to be a region that is highly sensitive to stress and prone to seizures. This is where mediators of stress interact with their target receptors to produce effects. Other
Seizures may occur as a result of high blood pressure, known as hypertensive encephalopathy, or in pregnancy as eclampsia when accompanied by either seizures or a decreased level of consciousness.
The 19th century saw the rise of targeted surgery for the treatment of epileptic seizures, beginning in 1886 with localized resections performed by Sir Victor Horsley, a neurosurgeon in London. Another advancement was that of the development by the Montreal procedure by Canadian neurosurgeon Wilder Penfield, which involved use of electrical stimulation among conscious patients to more accurately identify and resect the epileptic areas in the brain. Society and culture
Economics
Seizures result in direct economic costs of about one billion dollars in the United States. Epilepsy results in economic costs in Europe of around €15.5 billion in 2004. In India, epilepsy is estimated to result in costs of US$1.7 billion or 0.5% of the GDP. They make up about 1% of emergency department visits (2% for emergency departments for children) in the United States. Driving
Many areas of the world require a minimum of six months from the last seizure before people can drive a vehicle. Research
Scientific work into the prediction of epileptic seizures began in the 1970s.