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Last Thursday, January 23, Tijd voor MAX focused on epilepsy, a brain disorder that affects 200,000 people in the Netherlands. The guest is presenter Miljuschka Witzenhausen. She has a daughter with epilepsy and is an ambassador for EpilepsieNL. Also a guest is professor Ype Elgersma from the Erasmus MC, who conducts groundbreaking research into customized gene therapy.

Click here to watch the episode.

Epilepsy can happen to anyone, at any stage of life. Sometimes with a clear cause, such as an accident or a cerebral haemorrhage, more often without a clear cause. Some people have an epileptic seizure every day, others have it once a year. Thirty percent of people with epilepsy do not become seizure-free. These people have more than one seizure per month. This always happens unexpectedly: while shopping, doing odd jobs or on the way to work. 
 

Presenter Miljuschka Witzenhausen asks for attention for this brain disorder.
"Epilepsy entered our lives nine years ago. It disrupts my daughter's life every day. We are still looking for answers and solutions every day," the presenter said. 
Powerless and insecure In Time for MAX the story of Marije (20).
She is seven years old when she is diagnosed with epilepsy. Her childhood is determined by it: every day she suffers from absences and sometimes she has a seizure in which she loses consciousness. She often feels incredibly powerless and insecure. Her hope is placed on research to make her life more bearable. 
No treatment for four-year-old Inti.
Four-year-old Inti has a genetic disorder that results in epilepsy, for which there is no treatment. She is given the highest dosage of medication, but still has twenty to forty seizures per month. That is why she has to be monitored 24 hours a day, so that she can act immediately if she has a seizure. A huge task for her parents, because someone has to stay with her at all times, even at night. All hope is placed on a customized treatment through genetic therapy. 

Customized genetic therapy
Prof. Dr. Ype Elgersma is trying to develop a therapy for Inti; a treatment that should correct the genetic error. According to the professor, that is the solution: "in a few years we want to have this therapy in the clinic." The research he is doing focuses on children. "In more than thirty percent of children with epilepsy, a mutation in the DNA is the underlying cause," says Elgersma. "If you track down this genetic error, you can repair it with therapy."

Scientists throughout the Netherlands are committed to improving the lives of people with epilepsy through research every day. In the coming years, EpilepsieNL wants to focus on breakthroughs in scientific research into the treatment of epilepsy. Important spearheads are being able to predict seizures in the future and being able to cure epilepsy. Find out more about this by watching Time for Max.