Epilepsy Is Far More Common Than Most of Us Realize

• About 300,000 Canadians (1% of the population) are affected by this seizure disorder.
  
  
• Each year, 1 in 2000 is diagnosed with epilepsy.
  
  
• Each day in Canada, an average of 38 people learn that they have epilepsy.
  
  
• In one year, an average of 14,000 people learn that they have epilepsy.
  
  
• 60% of new patients are young children or senior citizens.
  
  
• Among seniors epilepsy is the third most common neurological disorder, after dementia and stroke.
  
  
• The prevalence of epilepsy in persons over the age of 65 is approximately 7%: 1 in 14 seniors.

Did You Know?

• In old Ireland, epilepsy was known as "St. Paul's Disease". The apostle discreetly mentioned his epilepsy on several occasions. In the 2nd. letter to Corinthians (2, 7) he says "...to keep me from being puffed up with pride...I was given a painful physical ailment...to beat me and keep me from being proud." He again mentioned his ailment in Galatians 4, 13-14.

• In the Middle Ages, Epilepsy was referred to as St. Vitus's Dance, not because St. Vitus had epilepsy but because people would dance in front of the statue of Saint Vitus on his feast day. This dancing developed almost into a mania. His connection with such "dancing" led to his patronage of dancers, and those with epilepsy supposedly because of the muscle jerking associated with tonic clonic epilepsy.

• The first (on record in Canada) neurosurgical electrical stimulation procedure, as treatment for recurrent seizures was performed in 1909 in St. Anthony , Newfoundland and Labrador , Canada, by Dr. John Mason Little. Dr. Little came to the Labrador coast from Massachussets General Hospital in the summer of 1907. He worked out of St. Anthony until 1915. These procedures were usually preformed at major medical centres.