Search for the Cure

We support government policies that ensure the adequate protection of people in clinical trials and the humane use of animals for medical research.

We also support innovative legislation that increases basic and clinical research funding through trust funds, additional authorizing legislation or other means.

The Epilepsy Foundation supports funding for epilepsy research in the following areas:

• Psychosocial
• Behavioral
• Cost of care
• Prevention
• Women's health
• Nursing
• Education
• Rehabilitation

The Foundation's Funding Recommendations

The Epilepsy Foundation supports the following funding recommendations for fiscal year 2003:

• Epilepsy Program at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention:
  The Epilepsy Foundation supports $11 million for the CDC epilepsy program, a $4.5 million increase.
  
  
• Health Resources and Services Administration:
  The Epilepsy Foundation supports an initial investment of $3 million in order to create demonstration projects to improve access to health care for people with epilepsy.
  
  
• Doubling the National Institutes of Health Budget:
  The Epilepsy Foundation supports the efforts to double the funding for the NIH, particularly the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). In keeping with this effort, we support a $1.5 billion funding level for NINDS in FY 2003.

Epilepsy Medical Research Advancement:

The Foundation urges Congress to support a major expansion of epilepsy research within NINDS. These investments in our nation's health are paying dividends. In the last decade, considerable progress has been made in identifying genes associated with epilepsy and in developing medications, devices, and surgical treatments. Nearly two years ago, participants in a historic scientific conference predicted that prevention and a cure for epilepsy are only a generation away. Now the scientific community is working on next steps and ways to measure progress toward these goals.

The conference, "Curing Epilepsy: Focus on the Future," was sponsored by the NINDS, which is the primary federal sponsor of epilepsy medical research and the Epilepsy Foundation. Together, the epilepsy community has developed a set of benchmarks and priorities to guide future research. They are specifically looking at how epilepsy begins, ways of identifying people at risk and how to develop treatments that will prevent epilepsy in those people as well as continuing the search for new therapies, free of side effects, to prevent seizures.