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Epilepsy and employment


Epilepsy can affect employment for a variety of reasons. Many employers are reluctant to hire a person they know has epilepsy, even if the seizures are controlled by medication. If the employee suffers a seizure while at work, they could harm themselves (but rarely others, contrary to popular belief) depending on the nature of the work. Employers are often unwilling to bear any financial costs that may come from employing a person with epilepsy, i.e. insurance costs, paid sick leave etc. Many people whose seizures are successfully controlled by a medication suffer from a variety of side effects, most notably drowsiness, which may affect job performance. Many laws prohibit or restrict people with epilepsy from performing certain duties, most notably driving or operating dangerous machinery, thereby lowering the pool of jobs available to people with epilepsy. Epilepsy sufferers are also prohibited from joining the armed forces, though they may work in certain civilian military positions.

Employment issues are responsible for 85% of the cost of epilepsy on society. In the United States, the median income for persons with epilepsy is 93% that of all persons. The unemployment rate for persons with epilepsy has been reported to be between 25% and 69%. The high school graduation rate has been reported at 64%, compared with an overall national average of 82%.

The following issues exist for people with epilepsy in their quest for and performance of employment:

People with epilepsy may be barred from various types of employment, either by law, by company regulations, or by common sense, thereby lowering the pool of jobs available to the job seeker.

Those barred from driving by the laws of the land in which they reside cannot perform any jobs that involve operating a motor vehicle. Even if the patients are permitted by law to drive their own vehicle, they may be barred by local and national laws from driving a vehicle for the purpose of certain types of employment, such as getting a Commercial Driver's License or driving a school bus or being the engineer of a train (even if a person who has not had a seizure in a certain time period is not permanently banned, they may still have to be able to stay seizure-free for a year or more even without medication).

Most countries bar those who have ever had a seizure from flying an aircraft, except perhaps for a private craft, especially if the aircraft in question is a commercial or military aircraft or is any type of jet, making a career in aviation or in space extremely unlikely (again, some people who have been seizure-free without medication for a considerable time period, usually at least a year, are allowed to fly- even jets- in some cases, if they can remain seizure-free for at least a year without using anticonvulsant drugs).


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