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Reducing mortality: an important aim of epilepsy management

Department of Clinical and Experimental Epilepsy, UCL Institute of Neurology, National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, Queen Square, London WC1, UK

Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Professor Josemir Sander
Box 29, National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, Queen Square, London WC1N 3BG, UK; lsander@ion.ucl.ac.uk

Received 26 September 2003

Accepted for publication 29 November 2003

Keywords: epilepsy mortality; status epilepticus; sudden death

Abbreviations: SUDEP, sudden unexpected death in epilepsy

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Epilepsy is often regarded as a benign condition, but there is little doubt that people with epilepsy are two to three times more likely to die prematurely than those without it.¹ The risk is not uniform over the lifetime of a person with epilepsy, nor across different populations.

Epilepsy is a symptom of a variety of conditions, and the mortality may be different for each condition. In the early years after the diagnosis of epilepsy most deaths are likely to be caused by the background aetiology of the epilepsy—for example, tumours, trauma, degenerative conditions, or cerebrovascular diseases. In this group it is unlikely that treatment of epilepsy will of its own improve the prognosis for life.

People with epilepsy are subject to the same causes of death as the population without epilepsy, but there are some specific ways in which mortality differs. Those with epilepsy may . . . [Full text of this article]

This article has been cited by other articles:

				B Morton, A Richardson, and S Duncan Sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP): don't ask, don't tell? J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatry, February 1, 2006; 77(2): 199 - 202. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]