As a child, Báthory suffered multiple seizures that may have been caused by epilepsy, possibly stemming from the inbreeding of her parents. At the time, symptoms relating to epilepsy were diagnosed as falling sickness and treatments included rubbing blood of a non-sufferer on the lips of an epileptic or giving the epileptic a mix of a non-sufferer's blood and piece of skull as their episode ended. This has led to speculation that Báthory's killings during her later life were part of her efforts to cure the illness she had been suffering from since childhood; however, there is no hard evidence supporting this speculation.