A study on long-term prognosis of epilepsy

Of 631 epileptic patients examined in our seizure clinic in the period between January 1961 and December 1966, 97 (15.4%) have been treated until September 1976, when the long-term prognosis was evaluated. The "good prognosis (completely controlled)" were found in 59% of grand mal, in 55% of focal motor seizure, in 42% of psychomotor and in 33% of the mixed seizure in which more than two types of seizures were combined; in 49% (48 cases) on the average. Seventy-nine percent of the cases of the mixed seizure were combined with psychomotor seizures. In the psychomotor and the mixed seizure groups, the presence of personality disorders tended to lead them to "poor prognosis" which meant that the seizures were not well controlled. Twelve cases manifested psychotic (paranoid) state: a schizophrenic, a case with chronic paranoid-hallucinatory state, and 10 patients with episodic paranoid state, whose episodes may be identified with the paranoid reactions. Out of the 49 "poor prognosis" cases, 17 (35%) had had seizure-free periods for more than three years in the past course of their treatment.