1. What is Chinese herbal medicine, how about the efficacy of the Chinese herbal medicine in epilepsy therapy?

Chinese herbal medicines refer to many kinds of natural plants, some animals like worms, and minerals in nature. They can be used for therapy of diseases substituted for chemical compounds. At present, the basic therapeutic method for epilepsy is medication, including Chinese herbal medicine and chemical drugs. Of course they also have other methods such as acupuncture and moxibustion and operation. Therapy for epilepsy with Chinese herbal medicine is safe and effective with good tolerance, minor toxic side effect and low recurrence rate. It has been demonstrated that most epilepsy can be cured through early and proper diagnosis and rational therapy with Chinese medicine.

2. What is Chinese patent medicine, how to administrate patent medicine?

The Chinese patent medicines are made through a series of processing procedure including processing, poison eliminating, abstracting to make the herbs into capsules, tablets, and pills. They have the advantages such as easy storage, convenient administration compared to water-decocted medicines. The dosage for patent medicines should also be determined according to actual condition. Prohibit concomitantly eating stimulating food such as raw garlic and capsicum with Chinese patent medicine.

3. How long can Chinese medicine therapy present effect and how long does it need to cure epilepsy?

 It generally costs 20 days to present effect of Chinese medicine therapy for epilepsy and control the seizure. But it may need a quite long time to cure the disease. Generally it need 1-2 years to strengthen and confirm the efficacy and some need 3 years.

4. What is acupuncture and moxibustion, how about its effect on epilepsy?

Acupuncture and moxibustion is a kind of therapeutic method in Chinese medicine that is to stimulate the acupoints in human body with sliver needles and cauterize the acupoints with moxa. Antiepileptic therapy with acupuncture and moxibustion has a long history in China, which is recorded in medical books in various dynasties. We make further research and development with modern achievements based on previous precious experience. We first examine the patients by electroencephalogram and encephalic relief map to make orientation and qualitative analysis, then determine the acupoints. This method has potent pertinence thus has good effect. It needs hospitalization and takes 30 days as a therapeutic duration.

5. Why do we emphasize that antiepileptic therapy should exert as early as possible?

<1>.Epilepsy seizure can cause damage of brain, which elicits memory dysfunction, intelligence decrease, and character change. It also can promote the increase of attack frequency. Someone may think that small seizure, psychomotor seizure, and limited seizure cause little damage to human body, they are wrong.

<2>. Epilepsy seizure can cause damage of limbs, injury of head or damage of other organs.

<3>.The earlier the therapy begins, the better effect will be, and the less influence on psychosis and intelligence will be. Some patients or relatives have fluke thinking and are worry about the adverse effect of drugs. They expect the epilepsy can be self-limited and do not get treatment. This is not correct. 

6. What psychological status should epileptic patients have?

The abnormal psychological statuses of patients include: a small amount of patients who have rare seizures or just present seizures do not pay attention to the damage of epilepsy. They have careless attitude to epilepsy and do not actively accept therapy. Most patients are pessimistic and disappointed with self-abasement. These abnormal psychological statuses have bad influence on both therapy and life practice. The patients should have such a kind of psychological status:：

<1>.Envisage its present, understand its hazards thoroughly, and actively cooperate with doctors in therapy.

<2>.Do not be afraid and worry too much that cause heavy psychological load. Indeed, epilepsy is refractive and has a long therapeutic duration. But it is not incurable. Most of them can be cured.

<3>.The patients should have confidence and patience to overcome the disease, should take exercise, enhance habitus, and improve the defending ability.

<4>.Properly treat the discrimination attitude of a few people in the society. Be brave to disdain the preconception.

7. What kinds of therapeutic patterns does the Center have, and how much the prices are?

The therapy is divided into three patterns according different conditions: hospitalization (2000-5000 RMB per month for hospitalization cost), outpatients’ therapy (200-500 RMB per month for drugs) and remote therapy (200-500 RMB per month for drugs and not cover the postage).

The therapeutic methods include Chinese herbal medicine therapy (in tablets or capsule dosage forms), acupuncture and moxibustion therapy, integrated therapy of Chinese and Western medicine, and other assistant methods.

8. What about the understanding of etiology of epilepsy in Chinese medicine?

（1）Psychological factors: Happiness can damage heart, missing can damage spleen; rage without release can damage liver and kidney. The irregular viscera mobility causes turbulence of organic function. Depression can generate sputum; sputum comes up with energy and blocks the aperture. Then the epilepsy occurs.

（2）Congenital factors: The mother has been frightened during pregnancy or has been improperly tended, which causes the fetus congenital hypogenesis, vitality insufficiency, and viscera incompatibility. The fetus will suffer from epilepsy after born. So the infant epilepsy patients are especially common.

（3）Tumble or delivering trauma: The congestion develops when suffer from sudden injury or trauma during delivery. Because heart is in charge of mind and blood vessels, if there is any congestion and coagulation that causes obstruction of blood flow, it will cause blood stasis in heart aperture thus the mind has no dominator. So there occurs unconsciousness and delirium in clinic.

（4）Dietetic factors: Intemperance of diet is one of the causes of epilepsy. In Chinese medicine’s viewpoints, spleen and stomach are the bases for acquired abilities. Diet changes into body fluid, energy and blood through digestion of spleen and stomach to supply nutrition to viscera, limbs and skeletons, which makes people strong and full of energy. In the contrary, intemperance of diet and damage of spleen and stomach make food and water stagnate. This causes blockage in gastrointestinal tract, spleen weakness that unable to modulate and digest, and the food and water coagulate and polymerize into sputum and waste that causes blockage of heart apertures. This may elicit unconsciousness and tumble and cause epilepsy seizure.

9. What examinations should be taken for diagnosis of epilepsy?

The basic examination for epilepsy is electroencephalogram. If there is probability of symptomatic epilepsy, patients should take CT or MRI. Only when further clarification of epilepsy origin is needed, especially for operation cases, patients should take PET, SPECT, and other orientation examination; some may take electroencephalogram monitoring by intracranial electrodes. The final orientation should integrate all kinds of examination for valuation.

10. The methods and procedure for diagnosis of epilepsy.

First determine if it is epilepsy seizure. This is mainly based on: (1) symptoms and signs (2) electroencephalogram examination (3) exclude other kinds of attack such as hysteria, syncope, transient ischemic attack (TIA), or paroxysmal hypoglycemia. Secondly, make further discrimination of types of epilepsy seizures. And finally, clarify the etiology of epilepsy as much as possible.