Abstract: Epilepsy is one of the common diseases in the nervous system with its comp licated pathogenesis still remained unknown．Recent studies showed that the abnormal discharge from neurons at the onset of epilepsy is closely related with the abnormality of neurotransm itter, ion channel, glial cells, synapse, genetic and immune factors． Follow ing is a review of the advances in pathogenesis of epilepsy in order to provide the theoretical evidence for the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of epilepsy．