When parents, or families who have had a child with epilepsy, become pregnant again, there is always the question of whether the next child will also have epilepsy. Is epilepsy actually hereditary? Why is it that a child is tested for hereditary epilepsy when three generations of grandparents have not had epilepsy? A variety of causes can cause seizures. If the parent has epilepsy caused by trauma or encephalitis, it will not be inherited; however, if both or one parent has hereditary factors that cause seizures, or if there are patients with epilepsy or febrile convulsions in the family, the possibility of the offspring having epilepsy will be greatly increased. Analysis. There are four main forms of genetic etiology: monogenic epilepsy, polygenic epilepsy, epilepsy in inherited multisystem disorders, and epilepsy due to abnormal cellular (chromosomal) anomalies. For example, if both parents are carriers of the same epilepsy gene, after chromosomal recombination, they will exhibit seizures in their offspring, which is why some families with a family history of epilepsy give birth to children with epilepsy caused by hereditary factors; and mutations in some gene loci can also cause structural or functional changes in ion channels or related molecules, leading to epilepsy, which also falls under the category of hereditary epilepsy.