Epilepsy is one of the five qualifying conditions that can make a person eligible to receive services under the Lanterman Act.   

Not everyone with epilepsy qualifies for services under the Lanterman Act.  Many people with epilepsy are able to manage their seizures with medication and lifestyle modifications and live their lives without regional center support.   

However, for some people, epilepsy causes challenges in daily living, including:  

  • Seizures that cause a loss of skills, including memory, language, attention, and motor abilities.   
  • Seizures that can happen unexpectedly and make activities like cooking, bathing, or walking alone unsafe.  
  • Side effects from seizure medicine, such as feeling tired, dizzy, having memory problems, or thinking more slowly.  
  • Worrying about having future seizures, which can cause stress or depression.  

What is Epilepsy?  

Epilepsy is a long-term brain condition that causes repeated seizures.  Seizures happen because of excessive electrical activity in the brain.  A seizure can cause changes in awareness, body movements, senses, or behavior.  Symptoms usually start between ages 2 and 14.  Epilepsy affects between 0.5% and 1% of children.  In California, about 48,000 children and adults with epilepsy receive services through the regional centers.   

Types of Epilepsy  

There are four common types of epilepsy.  The types of seizure that a person experiences can change, or their frequency can even reduce over time:  

  • Generalized epilepsy: People with generalized epilepsy have seizures that affect the left and right sides of the brain.  Seizures can be:  
  • Motor: jerking movements, muscle tensing, twitching, or full-body spasms  
  • Non-motor (also known as absent seizures): staring, sudden stop in movement, brief twitches, or fluttering eyelids  
  • Focal epilepsy: People with focal epilepsy have seizures that start in one part of the brain and can move to other parts.  They begin with minor symptoms, like a queasy feeling in the stomach and progress to motor or non-motor symptoms.  
  • Combined Epilepsy: A person experiences both generalized and focal seizures.   
  • Unknown Epilepsy: The location of the seizure is unknown but can include both motor and non-motor symptoms.  Most seizures are tonic-clonic (also called Grand mal seizures), which include:  
  • stiffening and loss of consciousness,  
  • rapid, rhythmic jerking and convulsing,  
  • bluish face from lack of oxygen,  
  • and loss of bladder and/or bowel control, and  
  • most often last between 1 and 3 minutes.  

What causes epilepsy?  

Epilepsy happens when brain cells release too much electrical activity.  Many things can cause this, such as very high fever, brain infections, chemical imbalances, poisons, lack of oxygen to the brain, swelling in the brain, allergic reactions, head injuries, strokes, or bleeding in the brain.  For about 25 percent of people with epilepsy, the cause is unknown.  

Not everyone who has a seizure has epilepsy.  Epilepsy is diagnosed if a person has at least two seizures without a clear cause at least 24 hours apart.  For instance, an individual may have a seizure that is caused by a high fever that is not followed by additional seizure activity and would not be considered epilepsy.  

Epilepsy supports  

  • The CDC’s Epilepsy Foundation’s 24/7 Helpline is available in both English (1-800-332-1000) and Spanish (1-866-748-8008).  Trained specialists can answer questions and help connect you with local resources. 

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