[Epilepsies of the young adult (author's transl)]

Data on 614 epileptic patients whose first seizure occurred between the ages of 19 and 29 were reviewed and some clinical and electroencephalographical features compared, in order to clear up the semiology and etiology of this type of late-onset epilepsy. Partial epilepsies were more numerous than generalized epilepsies and post-traumatic epilepsies the more frequent. We could only study the evolution of 305 patients for 5 years or more: 60% were not stabilized but, probably, those who were free of seizures no longer consulted the physician. It seems difficult to compare our findings with other studies, the age periods in the latter being too broad (childhood epilepsy, late or very late onset epilepsy).