Epilepsy can be passed on from one generation to the next in cases where the probability of inheritance is acquired, however, this probability is generally low.
People with epilepsy have the possibility of intergenerational inheritance, and generally autosomal recessive inheritance of epilepsy may be passed on from one generation to the next.
Autosomal dominant, autosomal recessive, mitochondrial, and X-linked recessive inheritance are all forms of inheritance of epilepsy.
Intergenerational inheritance refers to autosomal recessive inheritance, in which the patient’s parents are heterozygous and do not develop the disease, and the child born has a 25% chance of having a pure, or compound heterozygous mutation that causes the disease. There may be no patients in the offspring, and patients will appear in the previous generation as well as in the next generation, which is known as intergenerational inheritance.
Whether or not a person with epilepsy will be passed on from one generation to the next requires genetic counseling at the Genetic Diseases subspecialty of the Department of Neurology and, if necessary, genetic testing to determine this.