Patient's question:
Patient Gender:Patient Age:
Description of Symptoms:
His brother has epilepsy. Will his descendants inherit this disease?
Thank you!
Doctor's answer:
Epilepsy is divided into two categories: primary and secondary. Generally, secondary epilepsy is caused by lesions in the brain or outside the brain, such as intracranial tumors, cranial trauma, brain abscesses, and encephalitis. This type of secondary epilepsy is usually not hereditary. Primary epilepsy was previously considered a single-gene dominant or recessive genetic disease. In recent years, it is believed to be a polygenic genetic disease. Women with primary epilepsy may have children who could develop epilepsy, especially if the patients are close relatives or if both partners are primary epilepsy patients, the risk for the children to develop epilepsy increases significantly. Additionally, some genetic diseases may manifest epilepsy symptoms, such as tuberous sclerosis, phenylketonuria, and galactosemia. Although these conditions present with secondary epilepsy symptoms, they are clearly genetic diseases, so this type of symptomatic epilepsy will definitely be hereditary. From the perspective of eugenics, all married epilepsy patients, whether primary or secondary, should practice. If parents have a history of epilepsy but the children show no clinical symptoms, but do exhibit typical epileptic discharges or other abnormalities on EEG, these married young adults should also avoid pregnancy. If they insist on having children, they should undergo strict prenatal monitoring to regularly observe whether the fetus develops any abnormalities. Furthermore, if a mother with epilepsy has seizures during pregnancy, it may lead to fetal hypoxia and asphyxiation, potentially causing intrauterine fetal death. Some children may survive by chance, but brain development may be affected, leading to intellectual disabilities. Therefore, from any perspective, epilepsy patients should not have children after marriage.