[Epidemiology in epilepsy. Epilepsy primarily affects small children and the elderly]

Epilepsy is one of the commonest neurological/disorders, with peak incidences among the elderly and among children in the first year of life. Approximately 60,000 (0.7 per cent) of the Swedish population, 50,000 adults and 10,000 children, have active epilepsy. Stroke is the aetiology most commonly identified. The majority of those with a first-ever unproven seizure suffer no further seizures. Of those who do have further seizures (i.e., who develop epilepsy), 65-85 per cent eventually become free from seizures, and many of them are able to cease antiepileptic medication. Epilepsy is a heterogeneous disorder. The larger proportion of patients who are otherwise healthy, and who respond readily to antiepileptic treatment and manifest no side effects or only mild ones, are characterised by the best prognosis and are able to terminate treatment within 2-5 years without recurrence. At the other extreme is the smaller group of patients with onset of epilepsy very early in life, and characterised by multiple severe neurological defects, severe daily seizures, resistance (more or less) to all available treatment, and high mortality. In many cases of epilepsy, however, severity and prognosis lie somewhere between these two extremes.