Developmental aspects of epilepsy with special reference to age-dependent epileptic encephalopathy

The specificity of childhood epilepsy was characterized by investigating the evolutional changes with age and prognoses of age-dependent epileptic encephalopathy from the developmental aspect through a long-term follow-up. Three types of age-dependent epileptic encephalopathy showed mutual evolutional changes at certain ages. This indicated an important role of the brain development in the clinicoelectroencephalographical manifestations of age-dependent epileptic encephalopathy. Furthermore, the evolutional changes demonstrated an association with organic brain damage and etiology in addition to the age factors. The evolutional changes occurred more frequently in the cases with overt organic brain pathology. The prognosis was poorer in cases which underwent an evolutional change.