INTRODUCTION: People with epilepsy often need to deal with the stigma, usually worse than the epilepsy itself. In general, epilepsy is a condition that affects the behavior and the quality of life, not only for the person with epilepsy, but also for the entire family, especially because of stigma. For this reason, we can say that epilepsy has an bio-psycho-social impact on the people's life. Paradoxically, this facet of epilepsy is not often studied, especially in resource-poor countries, as Brazil, where superstitions, negative attitudes and lack of knowledge impair the relation between the community and people with epilepsy. PURPOSE: This article has the objective to introduce important aspects of stigma in epilepsy: conceptualization and models of stigma in the medical and social area; stigma and quality of life; neurobiological aspects and strategies to deal with it. CONCLUSIONS: This paper provides an overview of the stigma, including its different aspects. Stigma is a multifactorial concept and for this reason, to combat stigma it requires a broad intervention, involving medical, psychological and social areas. The understanding of the process of stigma contributes to a change of the social interpretation of the epilepsy, in a direction of a construction of a society more tolerant, where the differences are respected.
stigma; quality of life; epilepsy