Can epilepsy be cured?

2nd October 2019

When a person is diagnosed with epilepsy, the first thing they often ask is “can it be cured?”. It’s a completely natural reaction after receiving news that is possibly life changing to hope that there is a cure and life can continue as normal. However, at present there is no medical cure for epilepsy.  For…

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Category: Treatments

Photosensitive epilepsy

24th September 2019

Photosensitive epilepsy is the term commonly used for people who have seizures triggered by flashing or flickering lights and patterns. Due largely to its depiction in TV and film, it’s also a type of epilepsy trigger that many people think is an extremely common trigger. Although it affects around 20,000 people in the UK alone,…

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Category: Seizures

NICE makes recommendation on cannabidiol/CBD use for epilepsy

16th September 2019

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has published their initial decision to not recommend the use of cannabidiol/CBD (Epidyolex) for people who have Lennox-Gastaut or Dravet syndrome.  This is an initial decision and not yet classed as final NICE guidance, which means that although they are not initially backing it as a…

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Category: Treatments

Juvenile absence epilepsy

3rd September 2019

Juvenile absence epilepsy (JAE) is an epilepsy syndrome that’s quite common. It’s slightly more prevalent in girls than boys and presents mostly with absence seizures, which can mean that it’s easily confused for childhood absence epilepsy (CAE) and juvenile myoclonic epilepsy (JME).  Symptoms  With JAE, seizures will most often start between 9 - 12 years…

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Category: Syndromes

Cycling and epilepsy

28th August 2019

It’s more common than you would expect for people with epilepsy to wonder whether it’s safe to cycle or not. This is partly due to the growing popularity of cycling as a form of exercise and enjoyment, but also because many people with epilepsy are unable to drive until they’ve been seizure-free for over a…

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Category: Leisure

Are there any jobs off-limits to people with epilepsy?

22nd August 2019

Within reason, there are very few jobs that should be off-limits to people with epilepsy. An employer can not legally use your epilepsy as a reason to not give you a job. It is also important that employers are willing to make reasonable adjustments to accommodate you should they be needed.  There are however a…

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Category: Living with Epilepsy