Genetics
If epilepsy is present in your family history, then you are at risk. However, while there is indeed a link between genetics and epilepsy, genes don’t always indicate a predisposition to seizures—they might just make seizures more probable under certain circumstances.
Check your family history for any of the following seizure-related syndromes with known genetic mutations:
• Familial neonatal epilepsy
• Genetic epilepsy with febrile seizures plus (GEFS+)
• Dravet syndrome
• Juvenile myoclonic epilepsy
• Autosomal dominant nocturnal frontal lobe epilepsy
• Familial temporal lobe epilepsy
• West syndrome
• and more.
Several sources report that childhood epilepsy can be passed from parents unto their children, include benign focal childhood epilepsy, childhood absence epilepsy, and the above mentioned juvenile myoclonic epilepsy.
