Epidemiology
Epilepsy is one of the most common of the serious neurological disorders. About 3% of people will be diagnosed with epilepsy at some time in their lives. Genetic, congenital, and developmental conditions are mostly associated with it among younger patients; tumors are more likely over age 40; head trauma and central nervous system infections may occur at any age. The prevalence of active epilepsy is roughly in the range 5–10 per 1000 people. Up to 5% of people experience non febrile seizures at some point in life; epilepsy's lifetime prevalence is relatively high because most patients either stop having seizures or (less commonly) die of it. Epilepsy's approximate annual incidence rate is 40–70 per 100,000 in industrialized countries and 100–190 per 100,000 in resource-poor countries; socioeconomically deprived people are at higher risk. In industrialized countries the incidence rate decreased in children but increased among the elderly during the three decades prior to 2003, for reasons not fully understood.
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