Life expectancy in epilepsy
Tomson T and Forsgren L(2005) Life expectancy in epilepsy. Lancet 365:9459 557–8.
Abstract: First Paragraph: Does a diagnosis of epilepsy reduce a person's life expectancy? According to Athanasios Gaitatzis and colleagues the answer is yes, but under certain circumstances and to a variable extent. These authors recently estimated life expectancy in people with epilepsy, with data from the prospective community-based UK National General Practice Study of Epilepsy (NGPSE), and made comparisons with the general population. Life expectancy can be reduced by up to 10 years when there is a known cause of the epilepsy, the estimated reduction being highest at the time of diagnosis. These observations are hardly surprising considering the wealth of literature that shows increased mortality rates in people with epilepsy.
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Context
- Comment on Gaitatzis, emphasizing the very different life expectancies for patients with epilepsy due to known cause as opposed to idiopathic or cryptogenic epilepsy.