- Epilepsy is a common chronic neurological disorder characterized by recurrent unprovoked seizures.
- Approximately 1 in 100 teenagers has it.
- About 50,000,000 people worldwide have epilepsy, with almost ninety percent of these people being in developing countries.
- Epilepsy is not contagious.
- Over thirty percent of people with epilepsy do not have seizure control even with the best available medications.
- Seizures happen when there's a brief glitch in the brain's electrical activity.
- Famous people with epilepsy: Julius Caesar, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Florence Griffith Joyner, Margaux Hemingway, Vladimir Lenin, Adam Horovitz and Prince.
- Up to five percent of the world’s population may have a seizure at some time in their lives.
- Approximately seventy percent of people who have epilepsy surgery become seizure free.
- About 2.7 million of the U.S. population have Epilepsy.
- People with a history of depression are three to seven times more likely to develop epilepsy than the average person.
Fast facts about epilepsy
