What is epilepsy? Epilepsy, commonly known as “sheep epilepsy” or “lamb madness”, is a complex group of clinical syndromes that can occur in people of any age, with typical symptoms such as recurrent limb tonicity, loss of consciousness, limb convulsions, and foaming at the mouth. If poorly controlled, frequent seizures often cause brain dysfunction, which can lead to disability in severe cases. What is the incidence of epilepsy? The prevalence of epilepsy varies slightly from country to country and from race to race, but the international prevalence of epilepsy is about 10 per 1,000. There are more than 10 million people with epilepsy in China, and at the same time, the new incidence rate in China is 25/100,000/year, with nearly 400,000 new cases per year. Are all seizure symptoms epilepsy? Not all seizure events are epileptic seizures. Many seizures such as syncope due to cardiac causes or hypoglycemia, chorea, and hysteria are not epilepsy. Migraine headaches, transient ischemic attacks, and tic-obstruction syndrome sometimes need to be differentiated from epilepsy. How can seizures and non-epileptic seizures be distinguished? Seizures and non-epileptic seizures each have their own characteristics and are usually easy to distinguish by experienced physicians. Some complex cases require tools such as EEG to differentiate them. Seizures usually have abnormal EEG changes, while non-seizure EEGs are often normal. What is the current international understanding of epilepsy? Professionally, the most recent definition of epilepsy is as follows; epilepsy is a disease state of the brain characterized by a persistent susceptibility to produce seizures and the presence of corresponding neurobiological, cognitive, psychological and social consequences. Epilepsy is not a separate disease entity, but rather a group of neurological disease symptoms with different etiologic bases and characterized by recurrent seizures as a common feature. What is an epilepsy syndrome? The original concept of an epilepsy syndrome was to categorize epilepsies with the same or similar etiology, symptoms, EEG, treatment, and prognosis in order to assess the severity, treatment, and prognosis of epilepsy patients. As epilepsy research continues, more and more epilepsy syndromes are being discovered and named. This has a greater significance in guiding the diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis of epileptic seizures. Who is prone to epilepsy? Infants and young children are prone to seizures because their nervous system is not yet well developed, and older people are prone to seizures because of cerebral vascular sclerosis, decreased body reserves, and often combined with multiple metabolic diseases. The frequency of seizures increases in women during pregnancy. The same epileptic patient often has an increase in seizures in states such as cold, fever, excitement, and fatigue.