Epilepsy diagnosis may be improved by new clinical definition

A new clinical definition for epilepsy has been created by a task force of epilepsy experts, with the aim of “refining the scope” of patients diagnosed with the disease.

In 2005, the International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE) task force authored a report offering a definition of epilepsy as “a disorder of the brain characterized by an enduring predisposition to generate epileptic seizures, and by the neurobiologic, cognitive, psychological, and social consequences of this condition.”

It continued: “The definition of epilepsy requires the occurrence of at least one epileptic seizure.”

An epileptic seizure, meanwhile, was described as “a transient occurrence of signs and/or symptoms due to abnormal, excessive or synchronous neuronal activity in the brain.”

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