Epilepsy: A Century of Discovery

The last century has witnessed remarkable progress in our understanding and treatment of epilepsy. Long regarded as a condition of the possessed and deranged, epilepsy is now accepted as a bona fide medical condition, with well-defined clinical symptoms, reliable diagnostic modalities, and effective therapeutic options that dramatically improve clinical outcomes and enhance quality of life. This book highlights the progress made in health-related topics such as social epileptology and the globalization of epilepsy care. Chapters included in this book, combine both broad brushstrokes detailing the developments in fields as varied as basic epileptology, epilepsy classification, anti-epileptic drug development, clinical neurophysiology, paediatric epileptology, and neuroimaging; as well as narrowed and focused treatises on topics such as the autosomal recessive epilepsies, subacute sclerosing panencephalitis, the interplay of psychiatry and epilepsy, and the use of the operating room as a research laboratory. The book ends with a somewhat iconoclastic piece challenging several of our ongoing assumptions of epilepsy care perhaps serving as an impetus for further research as we head into the new century.