ABSTRACT
Epilepsy encompasses a spectrum of disorders which together constitute one of the most common neurological diseases seen in man: at its most benign it may manifest as a few self-limiting episodes, while at its worst it can lead to frequent, disruptive, disabling seizures which may be refractory to drug treatment. Many pathologies underlie these bursts of abnormal neuronal activity which result essentially from an imbalance between neuronal excitation and inhibition, either locally or generally throughout the brain. With the lifetime prevalence of seizures and epilepsy exceeding 5% of any given population (Shorvon, 1990), epilepsy may be seen not as a rare curse befalling the individual, but as the price that man and other vertebrates pay for maintaining a plastic and adaptable central nervous system.
