ABSTRACT
Physical training plays an important role in modern society, both from a medical and psychosocial perspective. However, patients with a chronic disease like epilepsy often are excluded from participation for fear of high risk of injury. Although such excessive restrictions slowly are being lifted, the literature of the last decade is regretably characterized by frequent negative recommendations regarding physical activity for epileptics. Institutionalized epileptics are the most affected. In 1960, Lennox and Lennox wrote that these patients could be described in one word: stagnant. They are slow in movement, thinking, communication, and bowel movement. Possible causes indicated were the epileptic problem, side effects of pharmacologic treatment, general treatment policy, and lack of physical activity. The latter topic is the focus of this chapter.
