Epilepsy is a common medical and social disorder or group of disorders with unique characteristics. Epilepsy is usually defined as a tendency to recurrent seizures. Epilepsy is a central nervous system (neurological) disorder in which brain activity becomes abnormal, causing seizures or periods of unusual behavior, sensations, and sometimes loss of awareness.

Anyone can develop epilepsy. Epilepsy affects both males and females of all races, ethnic backgrounds and ages the word “epilepsy” is derived from Latin and Greek words for “seizure” or “to seize upon”. Typically, the known causes of seizure involve some injury to the brain. Some of the main causes of epilepsy include: Low oxygen during birth, head injuries that occur during birth or from accidents during youth or adulthood. This implies that epilepsy is an ancient disorder; indeed, in all civilizations it can be traced as far back as medical records exist. In fact, epilepsy is a disorder that can occur in all mammalian species, probably more frequently as brains have become more complex. Epilepsy is also remarkably uniformly distributed around the world. There are no racial, geographical or social class boundaries. It occurs in both sexes, at all ages, especially in childhood, adolescence and increasingly in ageing populations. A major issue was what to include within the concept of epilepsy, i.e. all periodic “convulsive diseases” or only those with a rather restricted kind of motor convulsion with or without loss of consciousness. Thus many treatises on convulsive diseases will be presented in Neuro Forum 2023 which included hysteria, tetanus, tremors, rigors and other paroxysmal movement disorders.