Is epilepsy hereditary?

Epilepsy is also a type of epilepsy. This disease is characterized by recurrence and stubbornness, so if an average person suffers from this disease, it cannot be cured in a short period of time. This disease is also one of the common diseases of the nervous system. Anyone who has seen an attack of the disease should find the scene very scary. Moreover, it is not easy to cure this disease, so the patient's family and the patient himself are deeply tortured by this disease.

Some patients or their families want to know, if they suffer from epilepsy, will they pass the disease on to their children or relatives? In fact, this is very likely. The closer the relationship with the patient, the greater the possibility of contracting the disease. However, some people suffer from recessive genetic diseases. Even if they look normal on the surface, the genes carry this neurological disease.

The causes of epilepsy are extremely complex and can be divided into three categories, and there are many factors that affect the onset of epilepsy:

1. Idiopathic epilepsy

Suspected genetic tendency with no other obvious cause, often onset in a specific age group, with characteristic clinical and EEG manifestations, the diagnosis is relatively clear.

2. Symptomatic epilepsy

Central nervous system lesions affect structure or function, such as chromosomal abnormalities, focal or diffuse brain diseases, and certain systemic diseases.

(1) Localized or diffuse brain diseases: ① Congenital abnormalities such as various causes during embryonic development leading to brain perforation, microcephaly, congenital hydrocephalus, abscess of the corpus callosum and cerebral cortical hypoplasia, perinatal fetal brain damage, etc.; ② Acquired brain damage such as brain trauma, post-cranial brain surgery, post-stroke, post-incranial infection, and acute alcohol poisoning; ③ The incidence of neonatal epilepsy due to birth injury is about 1%, and birth injury during delivery is often accompanied by cerebral hemorrhage or cerebral hypoxia damage. The incidence of epilepsy in newborns with congenital brain malformations or birth injuries is as high as 25%; ④ Inflammation including central nervous system bacterial, viral, fungal, parasitic, spirochetal infections and AIDS neurological complications; ⑤ Cerebrovascular diseases such as cerebral arteriovenous malformations, cerebral infarction and cerebral hemorrhage; ⑥ Primary intracranial tumors such as gliomas and meningiomas; ⑦ Genetic metabolic diseases such as tuberous sclerosis, cerebrofacial angiomatosis, phenylketonuria, etc.; ⑧ Neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease and Pick's disease, about 1/3 of patients have epileptic seizures.

(2) Systemic diseases: ① Anoxic encephalopathy such as cardiac arrest, CO poisoning asphyxia, anesthesia accidents and respiratory failure can cause myoclonic seizures or generalized seizures; ② Metabolic encephalopathy such as hypoglycemia is the most common cause of epilepsy. Other metabolic and endocrine disorders such as hyperglycemia, hypocalcemia, hyponatremia, as well as uremia, hepatic encephalopathy and thyrotoxicosis can all lead to epileptic seizures; ③ Cardiovascular diseases such as cardiac arrest and hypertensive encephalopathy; ④ Febrile seizures. Febrile seizures leading to hippocampal sclerosis are secondary to systemic seizures of temporal lobe epilepsy and have become an important cause of refractory epilepsy; ⑤ Eclampsia; ⑥ Poisoning such as alcohol, isoniazid, carbazole and other drugs and heavy metal poisoning such as lead and thallium.

3. Cryptogenic epilepsy

It is more common. The clinical manifestations suggest symptomatic epilepsy, but no clear cause has been found. It may onset in a specific age group and have no specific clinical and EEG manifestations.

The above introduces the causes of epilepsy. If there is a patient at home, you must not give up treatment just because the disease is difficult to treat. At the same time, the patient himself must adjust his mentality. This is not cancer nor is it a shameful disease. Only when you heal yourself can your healthy body be your own. So everyone can go to more hospitals and don’t give up treatment.