Preface

Epilepsy is one of the most widespread neurological disorders. It has high morbidity and mortality rates and affects around 50 million people globally. Epileptic seizures have psychosocial consequences for patients and can result in several cognitive impairments. The occurrence of epilepsy is a self-facilitated pathological process triggered by the initial brain damage, ultimately leading to the loss of excitatory and inhibitory neurons in specific areas of the brain. Decades of research have failed to fully illuminate its etiology, and preventive or disease-modifying therapies are still lacking. New insights into the mechanisms of epilepsy are required to create effective treatments.

*Epilepsy - Seizures without Triggers* contains six distinct and enlightening chapters addressing epileptic seizures from various perspectives. Reading the first two chapters on the basic aspects makes one understand how epilepsy is related to the conditions like ferroptosis and neuroinflammation. The role of Fenton and Haber Weiss reaction in ferroptosis and epilepsy is described in the first chapter. Later chapters examine the role of epileptic focus in drug-resistant epilepsy and consider how microglia grow into an over-activated form and induce significant and highly detrimental neurotoxic factors that play a significant role in epileptogenesis.

The medical aspects section of the book begins by describing psychogenic non-epileptic seizures, followed by the management of cryptogenic epilepsy. Last but not least, readers will be captivated by the chapter on the development of pediatric epilepsy in Sub-Saharan Africa, including West Africa, due to onchocerciasis (river blindness).

Production of this book would not have been possible without the contributions of the experts in the field and the continuous hard work of IntechOpen's Author Service Manager Marina Dušević. I hope those who read it will benefit from a better understanding of the various aspects of epilepsy. Finally, I would like to emphasize that this book is meant for a broad range of readers, including people with an interest in epilepsy, undergraduate and graduate students, researchers, teachers, medical professionals, and neurological experts.

> **Kaneez Fatima Shad** Life Sciences, University of Technology Sydney, Ultimo, Australia

Section 1

Essentials of Epilepsy

**1**
