Epilepsy
human neurological disease causing seizures
Epilepsy is a group of neurological disorders characterized by a tendency for recurrent, unprovoked seizures. A seizure is a sudden burst of abnormal electrical activity in the brain that can cause a variety of symptoms, ranging from brief lapses of awareness or muscle jerks to prolonged convulsions. These episodes can result in physical injuries, either directly, such as broken bones, or through causing accidents. The diagnosis of epilepsy typically requires at least two unprovoked seizures occurring more than 24 hours apart. In some cases, it may be diagnosed after a single unprovoked seizure if clinical evidence suggests a high risk of recurrence. Isolated seizures that occur without recurrence risk or are provoked by identifiable causes are not considered indicative of epilepsy.
The underlying cause is often unknown, but epilepsy can result from brain injury, stroke, infections, tumors, genetic conditions, developmental abnormalities, trauma, drowning, or an unidentified medical condition. In most cases, no structural or toxicological cause of death is found at autopsy. SUDEP can occur with or without evidence of a preceding seizure, and is often unwitnessed, especially during sleep.
Epilepsy that occurs as a result of other issues may be preventable.
The public source identifies “Epilepsy” as human neurological disease causing seizures. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Epilepsy, human and neurological.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 19, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q41571. The Library of Congress control number is sh85044401. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Epilepsy” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.