Is Epilepsy Can Be Inherited?

What is genetic epilepsy?

Genetic epilepsy is a neurological disorder that causes seizures caused by genetic mutations in brain cells.

According to the Epilepsy Foundation, approximately 4 million Americans have epilepsy, of which around 1 million have genetic epilepsy. Epilepsy occurs when the electrical activity of brain cells becomes unbalanced and causes seizures.

In some people, seizures are triggered by certain foods or triggers. But for those with genetic epilepsy, such triggers are not a problem — they’re simply part of their condition.

Those with seizure disorders are not alone. Millions of people around the world suffer from epilepsy, including about half a million children and teens in the United States alone. Many other forms of seizures may be triggered by excessive use of alcohol or drugs such as marijuana, cocaine or heroin.

What are the symptoms of genetic epilepsy?

Seizures can have different symptoms, depending on the type. The 2 main types of seizures are focal seizures and generalized seizures: Focal seizures, also called partial seizures, start in one specific part of the brain. Focal seizures may be further classified as focal onset aware or focal onset impaired awareness. Focal onset aware seizures are sometimes called simple partial seizures. These do not cause a loss of consciousness. But they can cause the person to experience strange sensations or emotions and make strange movements, such as staring into space or smacking their lips. Focal onset impaired awareness seizures involve a change or loss of consciousness or awareness. They may involve staring blankly into space, becoming unaware of surroundings, and making random movements such as lip-smacking or walking in circles. Generalized seizures affect both sides of the brain from the start. There are 6 main types: tonic-clonic, clonic, tonic, atonic, myoclonic, and absence (previously called petit mal) seizures. Tonic-clonic seizures are sometimes called grand mal seizures. These cause an abrupt loss of consciousness, body stiffening (tonic phase), and shaking (clonic phase).

How do you get a genetic epilepsy?

Genetic epilepsy is caused by a mutation in one’s DNA. Most commonly, this mutation is associated with genes that code for brain proteins called ion channels. When these genes are mutated, they can produce proteins that are either nonfunctional or are dysfunctional in some way. This causes the brain to become more excitable, and can lead to an increased likelihood of seizures.

Genetic epilepsy is caused by an abnormality in genes that control brain activity. This abnormality can be inherited from a parent or it can be the result of a new mutation.

Inheriting an abnormality

If you inherit an abnormality from one or both of your parents, you are said to have an autosomal dominant disorder. This means that only one parent needs to have the abnormal gene that causes the condition for their child to be at risk of developing it too.

For example, if your mother has an abnormal gene that increases her risk of developing epilepsy, there’s a 50% chance that you will also inherit this gene and therefore also be at increased risk of developing epilepsy.

If you inherit an epileptic condition from one or both parents, you are more likely to develop the condition at some point during your life than someone who does not have this genetic susceptibility. However, the age at which symptoms start and the severity of symptoms vary widely between families and even within families.

How do you treat it?

The first thing is to get a diagnosis from a medical professional. They’ll probably take a skin or hair sample and look at it under the microscope to see if there are any parasites present.

There are also other treatments available. These work by killing the lice or their eggs and are available as liquids, gels, lotions and shampoos. You can buy some of them over-the-counter, but you may be prescribed something stronger by your doctor if the products you buy don’t work.

Types of Genetic Epilepsy

The specific types of generalized epilepsy are as follows:

Absence (petit mal) seizures — This type of seizure causes a loss of awareness. People who have absence seizures may stare into space and have subtle body movements, such as eye blinking or lip smacking.

Myoclonic seizures — These are brief, shock-like jerks of a muscle or a group of muscles. They can occur in clusters, and some people may have just one myoclonic jerk.

Atonic seizures — Also called drop attacks, these are sudden losses of muscle tone that may cause you to fall to the ground.

Tonic seizures — These are sudden stiffening of your muscles, usually in your back, arms and legs.

Tonic-clonic (grand mal) seizures — These are the most dramatic type of epileptic seizure and cause an abrupt loss of consciousness, body stiffening and shaking, and sometimes loss of bladder control or biting your tongue.

Is Epilepsy Inherited?

Epilepsy is a neurological disorder that causes seizures — temporary glitches in the brain’s electrical activity. The disorder can be debilitating, but it’s manageable with medication and healthy lifestyle choices.

If you have epilepsy, you may be wondering if your children are at increased risk of developing the disorder. In some cases, epilepsy is genetic, but there are often many other factors that can contribute to epilepsy in children.

How Is Epilepsy Inherited?

About 5 percent of people with epilepsy have a family history of the disorder, according to the Epilepsy Foundation. But even when a parent has epilepsy, their child’s risk of developing it is relatively low — between 3 and 5 percent. This risk increases if both parents have epilepsy. If a parent has idiopathic generalized epilepsy (IGE), which occurs in otherwise healthy individuals, their children may also develop IGE or another type of generalized epilepsy as well.

Are the brothers and sisters of children with epilepsy more likely to develop it?

The short answer: Yes, but not by much.

Epilepsy is a chronic disorder that causes unprovoked, recurrent seizures. It’s not contagious, but it is a little bit hereditary — your risk of developing epilepsy is slightly higher if you have a brother or sister who has it.

The exact cause of epilepsy varies from person to person, but it tends to involve some degree of brain damage. What that means is that the same genetic factors that might predispose someone to a brain injury could also increase their risk of developing epilepsy.

There are more than 40 different syndromes associated with genetic epilepsies, many of which are very rare and difficult to research, so there’s still a lot we don’t know about them. However, we can get an idea of how often epilepsy runs in families by looking at the rates among relatives of people who have been diagnosed with the disorder.

If I have epilepsy, will my children also have it?

If you have epilepsy, there is a slightly higher chance that your children will also have it. But remember, the vast majority of people with epilepsy are not related to anyone else who has epilepsy.

If your partner also has epilepsy, there is an increased risk that your child will develop epilepsy. This risk may be as high as 25% or even higher if both partners have a history of seizures in their families.

The risk for any one child is small. But if you and your partner are both having seizures, then all of your children should be evaluated by a pediatric neurologist at least once.

Conclusion

The conclusion to the story of genetic epilepsy is one of the most interesting stories I’ve told to date. The twists and turns are remarkable, and it’s here that I learned a very important lesson about how science works.

Many researchers are interested in finding the causes of epilepsy, including genetic causes. Recent research has identified a gene associated with febrile seizures and two genes associated with childhood absence epilepsy.