Knowing the cause and biology of a disease offers the optimum chance of devising the best treatment and prevention strategies. There are many examples across human diseases, with some remarkable public health achievements. For the epilepsies, with their wide heterogeneity and burdensome nature, there is much yet to be learnt about causation, even in the modern era. The value of such knowledge is unquestionable: the example of a better understanding of Dravet syndrome, for example, is shown in the daily management of this condition that is now informed by facts about its causation and pathophysiology. With about one in three people with epilepsy continuing to suffer seizures despite the range of antiepileptic drugs available, there is a pressing need to better understand causation and disease mechanisms to generate more effective treatments, not just those that control seizures, but also those that can halt and reverse the underlying disease processes. Moreover, for most people with...
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Sisodiya, S.M. (2010). Etiology and Pathology of Epilepsies: Overview. In: Panayiotopoulos, C.P. (eds) Atlas of Epilepsies. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-84882-128-6_11
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-84882-128-6_11
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