History of epilepsy in Chinese traditional medicine

Abstract

The first known document on epilepsy in China appeared in The Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine, Huang Di Nei Ching, written by a group of physicians around 770-221 B.C. The description of epilepsy in this book and in many others later published was confined to generalized convulsive seizures. No documentation of absence or simple partial seizures was provided. The first classification of epilepsy, probably by Cao Yuan Fang in A.D. 610, listed five types of epilepsy: "Yang Dian," "Yin Dian," "Feng (Wind) Dian," "Shih (Wet) Dian," and "Lao (Labor) Dian." Later, other classifications named seizures after the cry of animals whose cry the "epileptic cry" resembled, or after "visceral organs" believed to be responsible for the seizures. The concept of partial versus generalized seizures, however, was not observed in any of these classifications. The treatment of epilepsy, based on principles of "Yin Yang Wu Xing," consisted of herbs, acupuncture, and massage.