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Living With Epilepsy
The History of Epilepsy
Epilepsy is a serious disease that currently afflicts millions of people around
the world. But did you know that epilepsy has already existed and puzzled our
ancestors as far back as the start of human existence? In fact early medical
writings as early as 3000 years ago, show that no disease has sparked so much
interest and controversy among the early people than epilepsy.
However, our ancestors believed that epilepsy was an act of supernatural beings.
The Babylonians, for one, believed that seizures were caused by demons attacking
the person. The ancient Greeks on the other hand, believed that one will be
afflicted with epilepsy by offending Selene, the goddess of the moon and in
order to cure the disease, one has to eat mistletoe that has been picked without
the aid of a blade during the time the moon is smallest in the sky. The ancient
Romans did not only believe that the disease came from demons but that it was
contagious as well. To get rid of the disease, one was required to spit to
expel the demons.
400 B.C.:
The Greek doctor and Father of Medicine, Hippocrates, wrote the very first
document on epilepsy, “On the Sacred Disease.” Contrary to the belief that
epilepsy was an act of the demons, Hippocrates proved that epilepsy is a brain
disease. He explained that epilepsy was caused by surplus phlegm. His
prescription then was a diet that balances the hot and cold and to sleep in the
temple overnight with the hopes that the god Asclepius would appear in a dream
and cure the afflicted.
70
A.D.:
The Bible spoke of a man afflicted with epilepsy in Mark (verses 9:14-29). It
spoke of a man, whom a spirit possessed and displayed typical symptoms of
epilepsy such as seizures, gnashing of teeth, rigidness and foaming at the
mouth.
1494:
Almost hundreds of thousands of women died when two friars wrote the Malleus
Maleficarum- a handbook on witch-hunting. The book identified seizures with
witchcraft.
1904:
William Spratling, a neurologist, coined the term “epileptologist” to describe
someone specializing in epilepsy. Spratling is the first epileptologist in North
America.
1912:
Two teams of chemists created Luminal, a phenobarbital.
1859-1906:
This is the period of the start of the modern medical age of epilepsy. In a
study by English neurologists Russel Reynolds, John Hughlings and Sir William
Richard Growers, seizures were defined as the excessive, episodic discharge of
nerve tissue on the muscles. According to the study, seizures can cause
behavioral and sensational changes.
1920:
The very first medication for epilepsy, the ketogenic diet, was devised. The
ketogenic diet was low in protein, rich in fat and with minimum quantity of
carbohydrate to decrease the incidence of seizures by simulating the metabolic
effects experienced when fasting.
1929:
Hans Berger, a famous German psychiatrist, said that electric currents that the
brain generates could be recorded graphically on a piece of paper, even without
slicing open the skull. This was called electroencephalogram (EEG).
1929- 1963:
Different drug treatments for epilepsy such as phenytoin (PHT), carbamazepine (CBZ),
ethusuximide (ESM) and sodium valproate (VPA) were discovered. Since then,
numerous drugs have been discovered and received the approval of the US Food and
Drug Administration.
1968:
The Epilepsy Foundation of America was established, now called the Epilepsy
Foundation.
1970:
Epilepsy centers were established in different states through the efforts of the
Veterans Administration. As a result, a new breed of doctors began to focus on
the study and treatment of epilepsy.
1990:
Some states in the United States had laws
prohibiting people with epilepsy to get married and bear children, even in the
twentieth century. Other states conducted sterilization to prevent epileptics
from passing on the disease to future generations. To put an end to this
discrimination, the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 was passed by the
Congress.
Developments in neuroscience have already led to positive results as to finding
cures for epilepsy. Thanks to modern science, those living with epilepsy are
slowly regaining their lives. They are now able to live and go through their
day-to-day activities like normal people do. And with the dedication of
neurologists in studying epilepsy, an effective cure for epilepsy is not too far
from materializing.
>>> Table of Contents
Epilepsy News:
MSN
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Google
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Yahoo!
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