What I learnt from studying epilepsy: epileptology and myself

My life work with epilepsy has allowed me to learn a great deal. As an old soldier, I would like to give an account of some important milestones in my lifetime learning. The first factor that linked me to epilepsy was listening to a lecture delivered by Dr Yushi Uchimura on 'The pathogenesis of Ammon's horn sclerosis' at a conference of the Japanese Society of Neurology (now Japanese Society of Psychiatry and Neurology) in 1928 when I was a 4th year medical student at Tokyo University. The following year, I started to study under Dr Uchimura at the Department of Psychiatry, Hokkaido University School of Medicine. Another factor that linked me to clinical care and research of epilepsy as a psychiatrist was my encounter with the two volumes of 'Selected Writing of John Hughlings Jackson' edited by J. Taylor. Jackson's greatest asset and contribution to modern epileptology include (i) the discovery of 'Jacksonian epilepsy', (ii) 'conceptual revolution of epilepsy' by recognizing transient mental disorders as seizures, (iii) modern definition of epilepsy by defining epileptic seizures as discharges in the gray matter, and (iv) discovery of 'new epilepsy' (now temporal lobe epilepsy). In 1940, I reported clinical courses indistinguishable from schizophrenia in epilepsy cases. Through my studies, I disputed the then prevailing interpretation of this condition as epilepsy complicating schizophrenia, and proved that these cases were in fact epileptic mental disorders caused by epilepsy. Many patients with epilepsy require medical care as well as rehabilitation and welfare support. We need to further promote the facilities for rehabilitation and employment in the community for persons with epilepsy, such as co-operatives and welfare worksites. The issues that epileptology and epilepsy face in the 21st century is to realize the goals of liberating epilepsy from social stigma and protecting all the citizen's rights for persons with epilepsy.