Epilepsy and Mortality Rate and Cause of Death

The death of 218 persons known to have epilepsy in Warsaw was most often due to epilepsy, i.e., death in a convulsion or due to accident related to seizures. Brain tumor and heart disease came next, followed by carcinoma, pneumonia, suicide, and other accidents. In 97 institutionalized patients death in status or with pneumonia or heart disease was most frequent. The mean mortality rate in Warsaw was twice as high for men as for women (10.6 and 5.4/100,000, respectively). The mean life span was 12.5 yr after onset of seizures, an average of 20 yr shorter than in the population. The mortality rate was 3.5 times that to be expected under the age of 50 yr, 1.9 times that expected over 50. Death certificates often failed to give epilepsy as primary or related cause of death. Study of deaths in persons with epilepsy are misleading prognostically since the severe cases are always recorded.