Epilepsy still carries a stigma, and the public needs to know more about the condition, doctors and patients said at a seminar for journalists on how the media covers the disease.
The Association of Parents of Children with Epilepsy runs a project on media coverage of epilepsy, funded by the Agency for People with Disabilities. Veska Sabeva, the association's chair, said the way people talk and write about epilepsy is also debated at international forums.
About one in 26 people faces the risk of developing epilepsy at some point in their life, and around 50 million people worldwide have the condition, according to 2024 data cited by Dr. Petya Dimova, a neurologist at St. Ivan Rilski hospital in Sofia. The disease most often appears in early childhood or after age 65.
Between 25% and 30% of cases don't respond to treatment. When epilepsy isn't treated properly, the effects on patients and their families can be severe, Dimova said. Cheap but effective drugs aren't sold in Bulgarian pharmacies, so patients' families bring them in from abroad.
The prejudice dates back to ancient times, when the disease wasn't understood, the neurologist explained. Even then, descriptions of the condition linked it to heredity — including in animals — as well as to mental and physical disabilities. Epilepsy is not contagious, and the disease takes different forms, affecting patients differently and with varying severity.
During a seizure, don't hit the patient or hold them down, and don't put anything in their mouth — no spoon, nothing, Dimova said.