Link to our website is https://harvard-team-pivot.github.io/epilepsy-prediction/
Epilepsy is one of the most common neurologic conditions in the United States, affecting at least 1 in 100 adults and 1 in 20 children. There are more than 40 types of epilepsy—referred to collectively as the epilepsies—that cause recurrent
seizures and that can be responsible for brain damage; neurological, cognitive, or psychiatric impairment; and death. Advances in research are improving our understanding of the scope of epilepsy a nd its public health impact.
However,
current approaches often do not fully take into account either the broad range of epilepsy disorders or their consequences for health and quality of life.[1] Epilepsy is a common neurological disorder in childhood and can have a major
impact on a child's development. In many children the seizures remit, but in others the disorder continues and may affect adult life.
Our goal is to identify factors which may lead persons having seizures to be diagnosed with epilepsy. This will help medical personnel treat and prevent seizures at an early age. Prompt medication can allow epilepsy patients to be cured of their seizures. This lower the burden on caregivers and the cost to society. Several tests to diagnose epilepsy are performed to determine the cause of seizures.
Determining the natural history of epilepsy in childhood poses problems because doctors usually delay making the diagnosis until the condition has established itself beyond reasonable doubt. Deciding whether convulsions in young children are due to febrile (triggered by a fever) or non-febrile incidents can be very difficult even with the benefit of hindsight. These problems bedevil the accurate epidemiological study of children's epilepsy. Many cross-sectional studies of children's epilepsy have been carried out on a variety of samples drawn from medical or educational sources, including community hospitals, general practitioners and cities. From the United States two large cohort studies have followed children with epilepsy up to 7 years of age. This followed a much smaller British cohort, including 27 children with epilepsy, to the age of 15 years. The need for more information about the long-term development of children with epilepsy remains. We review here the histories of the young people in the National Child Development Study -who were identified as having epilepsy during their first 11 years and model their seizure patterns, possible causation, and progress up to the age of 16 and assess their condition in relation to the many other types of seizure found in childhood.[2] Epilepsy is a common neurological disorder in childhood and can have a major impact on a child's development. In many children the seizures remit, but in others the disorder continues and may affect adult life. Despite a large amount of published literature from many countries on the incidence of epilepsy in childhood, comparatively little is known about the long term prospects for those who have epilepsy in childhood. There is considerable difficulty in comparing studies; variations in incidence rates may not only reflect differences in occurrence but also differences in case definition, diagnostic accuracy, and study populations. Variations in prevalence may also depend on the definition of active epilepsy. The heterogeneous nature of seizure disorders causes additional complications: the term “epilepsy” is being replaced b y increasingly well defined epileptic syndromes. Some people have associated disabilities or additional health problems which influence the aetiology, prognosis, prevention of seizures, and management of the disease.[2]