This Article  • References  • Full text PDF  • Reply to article  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citation map  • Citing articles on HighWire  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in this journal  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

Robert G. Hart, MD; J. Donald Easton, MD

Arch Neurol. 1986;43(12):1289-1290.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

The management of patients with a single, unprovoked seizure is controversial. The likelihood of seizure recurrence after a first seizure has profound social, vocational, and emotional implications for the patient. The issue of whether or not to use anticonvulsant medication in these patients is an important part of this controversy and may be substantially affected by the true probability of seizure recurrence. The last word about recurrence of seizures following an initial, unprovoked seizure has yet to be written.

It is widely stated that only about 30% of adult patients who experience a single, unprovoked seizure will subsequently develop recurrent seizures (epilepsy). This figure is derived from several studies that differed in their patient populations and in their patients' use of anticonvulsants (Table). Further, the critical interval from the first seizure to entry into the study was often not defined in these studies. This interval is critical because all epileptics . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Author Affiliations
From the Department of Medicine (Neurology), University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio.

Footnotes
Accepted for publication July 26, 1986.

Reprints not available.

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?