[Epilepsy in films. A new century and… the same old perspective?]

Epilepsy is a neurological pathology often represented in film. The literature on the subject concludes that the image of the disease is laden with sensationalism and imbued with stereotypes such as madness or possession.

We provide a descriptive analysis of the seizures that appear in 155 film and analyze whether productions of the new century have succeeded in changing earlier impressions. In our series, the percentage of seizures that are not epilepsy (pseudoseizures and induced symptomatic seizures) reaches 37%. The analysis by age of seizure type and etiology of these shows similar results to the true population, however it should be noted that the age distribution of the sample does not match the true population.

Epilepsy has not shed the spiritual component that traditionally accompanies it and that seizures tend to be used as simple visual aids, without excessive diligence in its correct representation and without much reference in the plot to the disease that causes them. However, in the last decade stigmas associated with this disease such as insanity, uncontrolled violence or victimization tend to normalize.