A retrospective study on the prognosis of aged patients with epilepsy

A retrospective follow-up study on the prognosis of 90 patients with epilepsy above 40 years of age has resulted in: 1. In the aged patients, the duration of epilepsy (mean: 23 years) was longer than the period of treatment they underwent (mean: 14 years). The delayed commencement and/or interrupted medication along with the patients' incompliance of taking drugs accounted for the main reasons for at least 70% of the patients. 2. The partial epilepsy (80%) especially with complex symptomatology (55%) were predominating in the aged group. And also, that the tonic-clonic seizures were liable to convert to the complex partial seizures in their thirties and forties, was found in this study. 3. Although almost all the patients (97%) had more or less clinical attacks even at the time of survey, 75% or more decrease in seizure frequency have been exerted for one and a half year, regardless of the seizure types in the majority of the patients (81%). This seems to offer an explanation that an appropriate sociomedical strategy is necessitated for patients with long-standing epilepsies.