Epilepsy is a kind of brain dysfunction syndrome caused by so many reasons instead of a certain disease. Abnormal neuron discharge can cause epilepsy. Idiopathic epilepsy refers to epilepsy or epilepsy syndrome without any latent reasons but inherited trait. Idiopathic epilepsy is confirmed as an ion channelopathy at present. The first genemutation was found in idiopathic epilepsy in 1995, and a lot of genes coding either voltage-gated or ligand-gated ion channels have been found since then. In the present review, some new advances in research on ion channels dysfunction in idiopathic epilepsy are summarized.
