Epilepsy: A Fight For The Cure

By: CBSNews

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Jensen is testing a new anti-convulsant drug and, at least in the lab, it worked.

"We can see that we've stopped the brain activity in this case," Jensen explained, showing Couric an on-screen read-out of brain activity.

Asked if this is a "Eureka" drug, Jensen said, "Well, it is a prototype drug. So, in this case, it worked."

But no one medication will ever treat the more than 25 different types of seizures, which are diagnosed by recording brain activity. If a seizure is in the part of the brain responsible for motor skills, it can cause a person to jerk uncontrollably.

In another region, it can be as subtle as a brief starring spell. Because of the range of symptoms, Jensen says epilepsy is often misdiagnosed.

"The people that have staring spells could be mislabeled as just not paying attention or attention issues. Some people later in life have seizures and it gets mistaken for dementia," she explained.

Asked if it makes her furious that more attention hasn't been paid to this, Jensen told Couric, "Yes. People don't realize that it's happening to two in 100 people, and even more than that, in five or six out of every 100 children have had some form of epilepsy."

Some of the people most at risk are those who have sustained head injuries, which is why the U.S. military is also focusing on epilepsy.

There are thousands of veterans with traumatic brain injuries from fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, who we know from other wars, have up to a 50 percent chance of developing epilepsy.

Captain Pat Horan was severely wounded two years ago while on patrol in Baghdad. "I got shot right in the head," he said.

He lost his ability to read, write, walk and even speak. "I lost the whole thing," Capt. Horan told Couric.

Horan and his wife Patty say his seizures, which started four months after his injury, have been the hardest part of his recovery at Walter Reed Medical Center. Each seizure would wipe out the progress he was making and he'd have to start all over again.

"Do you wonder, Patty, how much more Pat might have progressed if he didn't have epilepsy?" Couric asked.

"Yeah, I do," she replied. "They say most of your healing is gonna be done in the first two years. So, a year and a half of that, he had seizures, you know, every month, every two months."