Is epilepsy inherited?

This issue is of serious concern not only to patients with this ailment, but also to those who do not suffer from it. Naturally, everyone prefers to avoid such a fate and live fully. However, sadly, brain disease can occur through a gene.

More prone to epilepsy, which is typical, in this way, the strong half of humanity. But there are frequent cases of the occurrence of a form of epileptic disease in head injuries with damage to the skull, which were accompanied by infection. And in such cases it is simply ridiculous to be afraid that in the future the children in the family may suffer the same disease.

In fact, about the manifestation of forms of epilepsy

Further, it will be appropriate to consider the disease by the nature of the varieties, for understanding; which of the forms can be considered more common for inheritance.

If there is a chronic disease behind epilepsy, otherwise dysfunction of the electrical activity of cells in the brain, which leads to the manifestation of neuropsychiatric changes, which are accompanied by sharp, and most often sudden, seizures.

This is the result of a violation of the normal state of neurons, in any part of the brain, or in its entire mass, and threatens with an electric discharge that provokes convulsions and convulsions.

Based on what triggered the brain disease, one can judge the following forms of epilepsy:

Symptomatic manifestation

This is a secondary form, otherwise acquired. It can be caused not only due to TBI. This can be facilitated by a stroke, vascular disease, and blood poisoning with toxins. And it is more tragic when this terrible disease of an acquired form overtakes babies, since the child’s brain is especially vulnerable.

The opinions of experts are unambiguous; by inheritance, there is a high probability of acquiring genuinic or idiopathic types of epilepsy, but this may not always happen, since no cases have yet been identified that would indicate the true mechanisms of transmission of the disease.  

There are two forms of epilepsy that future generations in families may be at risk for: Rolandic and Juvenile- Moclonic .  

In the first version, the disease can manifest itself through a generation and only in the case of direct inheritance, and also when there is a sexual characteristic. Coincidence only in male and exclusively female lines.

Descendants of the opposite sex in such cases can only be carriers of the gene, which can be seen as the following example:
– the mother suffers from epilepsy, the child will be healthy. Grandchildren can already carry the gene, or even get sick.

In the next variant, the disease through the gene is not excluded by a recessive mechanism. But this form of manifestation of epilepsy was observed quite rarely, since in order for the child to be at risk of inheriting the disease at birth, both the father and mother must be carriers of the gene.

Certain controversial nuances

When discussing the topic of the possibility of inherited disease transmission, unanswered questions often arise. In some cases, the presence of risk and the presence of dominant genes, the child can avoid the disease, but there is a high probability of occurrence in subsequent offspring.

The disease can occur in various forms. In some, seizures are accompanied by convulsions and foaming at the mouth, while others can suffer an ailment on their legs. In some, there are signs that portend a seizure, while in others this period comes suddenly.

Each specific case of the disease due to inheritance can be diagnosed exclusively by a geneticist, because in such situations it is definitely impossible to predict.