Resumo

DANTAS, Fábio Galvão; RIBEIRO, Clarissa Dantas  e  SILVA JUNIOR, Windsor Ramos da. Epilepsy in famous persons. J. epilepsy clin. neurophysiol. [online]. 2008, vol.14, n.2, pp. 71-75. ISSN 1676-2649.  http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S1676-26492008000200006.

Persons with epilepsy almost always have been seen as lunatic, hysterical or insane people, mainly during medieval times. Thus, they were segregated and left beside social and scientific communities. Nevertheless, several famous persons have been described as suffering from epilepsy, and it is believed that at least some of their important contributions may have resulted from ictal and interictal epileptic phenomena. This paper reviews some evidences of epilepsy diagnosis in five famous persons, who left us a legacy of knowledge and a wonderful artistic production, in spite of having had a very suffering and difficult life.

Palavras-chave : Epilepsy; famous persons.