Early treatment does not seem to affect the risk of mortality in epilepsy but the presence of comorbidity may
Epilepsy is often seen as a benign condition, but in reality nothing could be further from the truth. It has a high morbidity and carries an increased risk of premature mortality, consistently seen in many studies.1 Increased mortality in epilepsy is an important part of its burden; some aspects of it are, however, baffling, as the reasons for it are not entirely clear. When death occurs in people with recent onset of epilepsy, it is often due to the same condition which caused the epilepsy. In people with chronic epilepsy, sudden unexpected death in epilepsy is a common cause, at least in high-income countries. These two situations, however, do not explain the whole story. Many studies have been carried out in refractory populations, and as a result of this it is often stated that the risk is related to the activity of epilepsy; that is, people with…
