Shifting perspectives: From "Epilepsy" to "Cerebroelectric Disorder".

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVE: Epilepsy has long been associated with stigma and misconceptions. In response, the Korean Epilepsy Society initiated the Epilepsy Renaming project in 2008 to replace the stigmatizing term with a neutral and scientifically grounded name, "cerebroelectric disorder". This study explores the impact of changing terminology on the public discourse surrounding epilepsy. METHODS: Online news articles from distinct time periods (2001-2003, 2011-2014, 2017-2018, and 2020-2022) were analyzed using text data analysis techniques, including Latent Dirichlet Allocation topic modeling, frequency analysis, and sentiment analysis. The inclusion of data from 2017 to 2018 allowed for an examination of discourse trends independent of the COVID-19 pandemic's influence. Correlation of words in each period was visualized via network maps. Migraine was set as control term to highlight changes in perception devoid of significant stigma intervention efforts. RESULTS: The analysis revealed a significant shift in terminology preference, with cerebroelectric disorder gradually replacing epilepsy in news articles. The discourse surrounding epilepsy evolved over time from focusing on healthcare and economic aspects to patient-centered discussions, emphasizing the daily lives of individuals with epilepsy. This shift towards more empathetic and less stigmatized language was contrasted against the discourse on migraine, highlighting the specific impact of the terminological change on epilepsy's perception. CONCLUSION: The adoption of the neutral term "cerebroelectric disorder" in South Korea has influenced the discourse surrounding epilepsy, leading to more patient-centered discussions and a reduction in stigma. This study highlights the importance of terminology in shaping public perceptions of diseases and suggests that changing terminology can positively impact the understanding and destigmatization of epilepsy.

Changing name of epilepsy in Korea; cerebroelectric disorder (noi-jeon-jeung,ë‡Œì „ì¦,): my epilepsy story.

Public misconception of epilepsy may lead to significant stigma to the disease itself, thereby causing impaired quality of life in people with epilepsy. Traditionally, epilepsy has been considered to be the consequence of evanescent spiritual forces, and even demonic possession (in many countries). The names of epilepsy in some East Asian countries originated from China, and include madness in their meaning. We recently changed the Korean name of epilepsy, gan-jil (간질, : a crazy, convulsive disease having meaning similar to ), to a neutral and scientifically explainable name: noi-jeon-jeung (뇌전증; ; cerebroelectric disorder). We expect that changing the stigmatized name of epilepsy to a neutral and scientific term with the meaning of cerebroelectric disorder will reduce the social stigma by understanding of epilepsy as one of the neurologic disorders.

Epileptic nystagmus: A case report and systematic review.

PURPOSE: We aimed to define the characteristics of epileptic nystagmus and correlate those with other clinical findings in a large number of patients. METHODS: We report a patient with epileptic nystagmus and additionally reviewed the reported clinical features of 36 more patients through a systematic literature search. We analyzed the characteristics of epileptic nystagmus and attempted correlations of those with alertness of the patients and epileptic foci on EEG. RESULTS: All 33 patients with unilateral horizontal nystagmus showed nystagmus beating away from the side of ictal discharges. Epileptic nystagmus was preceded by gaze deviation in 21 patients, with contraversive in 19 and ipsiversive in 2. Seizures associated with epileptic nystagmus were mostly focal (25/29, 86.2%) with or without loss of awareness. Ictal discharges originated from the occipital (n = 16), parietal (n = 9), temporo-occipital (n = 6), frontal (n = 4), and temporal (n = 3) areas, and two patients had multiple epileptic foci. Seizures were usually symptomatic (24/37, 64.9%). The presence of preceding gaze deviation and midline crossing of the nystagmus did not correlate with the ictal onset zone or alertness of the patients. Recording of epileptic nystagmus was available only in 6 patients, and the epileptic nystagmus could be localized to the saccadic areas in two and to the smooth pursuit areas in another two. Two patients showed the features of epileptic nystagmus from both areas. CONCLUSION: Even though the localizing value of epileptic nystagmus seems limited in previous reports, the fast phase of epileptic nystagmus was almost always directed away from the epileptic focus that mostly arose from the posterior part of the cerebral hemisphere.