ReviewJournal of neurology, neurosurgery, and psychiatry2004
The natural history of epilepsy: an epidemiological view.
Review in Journal of neurology, neurosurgery, and psychiatry, 2004. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 113 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
113 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 406 citations in OpenAlex.
- Can REM Sleep Localize the Epileptogenic Zone? A Systematic Review and Analysis.Frontiers in neurology · 2020Pooled it
- Management of epilepsy in brain tumors.Neurological sciences : official journal of the Italian Neurological Society and of the Italian Society of Clinical Neurophysiology · 2019Guideline
- Pooled it
- Incidence of epilepsy: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Neurology · 2011Pooled it
- Long-term assessment of topiramate for epilepsy: an open-label, single-arm, multicentre, prospective study in a naturalistic setting.Clinical drug investigation · 2011Trial
- Nucleus-specific thalamic involvement in seizure networks differentiates neuromodulation outcomes.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2026Article
- Dataset of chronic intracranial EEG of epilepsy patients via responsive neurostimulation system.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2026Article
- Gray matter abnormalities and memory impairment in left mesial temporal lobe epilepsy.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2025Article
- Computational modeling of resistance to hormone-mediated remission in childhood absence epilepsy.Frontiers in computational neuroscience · 2025Article
- Development of Seizures Following Traumatic Brain Injury: A Retrospective Study.Journal of clinical medicine · 2024Article
- Long-Term Outcome in Adult Patients with Drug-Resistant Epilepsy Submitted to Vagus Nerve Stimulation.Brain sciences · 2024Article
- Differential cortical layer engagement during seizure initiation and spread in humans.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Differential effects of antiseizure medications on neurogenesis: Evidence from cells to animals.Heliyon · 2024Review
- Translation to Portuguese and cross-cultural adaptation of the epilepsy transition readiness checklist for use in Brazil.Clinics (Sao Paulo, Brazil) · 2024Article
- Combining interictal intracranial EEG and fMRI to compute a dynamic resting-state index for surgical outcome validation.Frontiers in network physiology · 2024Article
- Virtual stimulation of the interictal EEG network localizes the EZ as a measure of cortical excitability.Frontiers in network physiology · 2024Article
- Review of pharmacogenetics of antiseizure medications: focusing on genetic variants of mechanistic targets.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2024Review
- Cenobamate in refractory epilepsy: Overview of treatment options and practical considerations.Epilepsia open · 2023Review
- TRPM4 regulates hilar mossy cell loss in temporal lobe epilepsy.BMC biology · 2023Article
- Optimization of closed-loop electrical stimulation enables robust cerebellar-directed seizure control.Brain : a journal of neurology · 2023Article
53 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Better information of the natural history of epilepsy has important implications for understanding the underlying neurobiology, evaluating treatment strategies, and planning healthcare resources. The traditional pessimistic view has been dispelled by results from modern community based prospective studies, showing that over 60% of newly diagnosed patients will enter remission upon treatment. Recent outcome studies suggest that medical intractability may be predicted after failure of two antiepileptic drugs. Poor prognostic factors include a high initial seizure density, symptomatic aetiology, and presence of structural cerebral abnormalities, all of which can be identified early on. Among patients who have entered remission, many will remain seizure-free after antiepileptic drug treatment is withdrawn, suggesting that the underlying seizure generating factor has remitted. Whether some of these patients have entered remission "spontaneously" is contentious because, with effective pharmacotherapy for epilepsy in use for over 100 years, the natural history of untreated epilepsy is largely unknown. Circumstantial evidence, mostly arising from resource poor countries where antiepileptic drug treatment is not readily available, indicates that spontaneous remission may occur in up to 30% of cases. Observations from these complementary sources suggest that, at the population level, prognosis of newly diagnosed epilepsy may be broadly categorised into three groups: remission without treatment, remission with treatment only, and persistent seizures despite treatment. As understanding of the prognostic factors improves, the potential of a "prognostic group specific" management approach should be explored so that effective treatments may be used in a more rational and targeted fashion.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.