Epilepsy

Epilepsy History and stigma Classification Precipitants Epidemiology Seizure types Epilepsy syndromes Treatment Pathophysiology

Epidemiology

Epilepsy is one of the most common of the serious neurological disorders. Genetic, congenital, and developmental conditions are mostly associated with it among younger patients; tumors are more likely over age 40; head trauma and central nervous system infections may occur at any age. The prevalence of active epilepsy is roughly in the range 5–10 per 1000 people. Up to 5% of people experience non febrile seizures at some point in life; epilepsy's lifetime prevalence is relatively high because most patients either stop having seizures or (less commonly) die of it. Epilepsy's approximate annual incidence rate is 40–70 per 100,000 in industrialized countries and 100–190 per 100,000 in resource-poor countries; socioeconomically deprived people are at higher risk. In industrialized countries the incidence rate decreased in children but increased among the elderly during the three decades prior to 2003, for reasons not fully understood.

Beyond symptoms of the underlying diseases that can cause certain epilepsies, people with epilepsy are at risk for death from four main problems: status epilepticus (most often associated with anticonvulsant noncompliance), suicide associated with depression, trauma from seizures, and sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP) Those at highest risk for epilepsy-related deaths usually have underlying neurological impairment or poorly controlled seizures; those with more benign epilepsy syndromes have little risk for epilepsy-related death.

Certain diseases also seem to occur in higher than expected rates in people with epilepsy, and the risk of these "comorbities" often varies with the epilepsy syndrome. These diseases include depression and anxiety disorders, migraine and other headaches, infertility and low sexual libido. Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) affects three to five times more children with epilepsy than children in the general population. Epilepsy is prevalent in autism.