The Evaluation and Treatment of Seizures

ONE of every 11 Americans who live to be 80 years old will have had at least one seizure. About 3 percent of the population has recurrent, unprovoked seizures (epilepsy). 1 In the United States, the estimated prevalence of active epilepsy is 6.42 cases per 1000 population. On the basis of 1980 census figures, this means that at least 1.5 million people in this country have active epilepsy. 2 Thus, seizures present common management problems in medical practice. The goals of treatment include minimizing both the risk of recurrence of seizures and the deleterious side effects sometimes associated with antiepileptic drug therapy, . . .