Epilepsy facts and figures

About epilepsy

1. Epilepsy is one of the most common serious neurological conditions.¹
2. In the UK, around one in 100 people live with epilepsy [UK point prevalence 9.37 per 1000 population]; epilepsy affects 630,000 people.²
3. Around 30% of people live with uncontrolled seizures.³
4. There are three epilepsy-related deaths every day.⁴
5. About 100,000 people present to hospitals each year in England with an epileptic seizure.⁵
6. There are approximately 40,000 epilepsy-related admissions to English hospitals per annum (1.4% of all emergency medical admissions).⁵
7. There are an estimated 60,000 attendances at emergency departments in England for epilepsy.⁵
8. Research in a large region of England found suspected seizures represented 0.71% of Emergency Department attendances:⁶
   • 89.8% of people arrived by emergency ambulance
   • 45.4% of people were admitted
   • 44.5% of the admissions lasted under 48 hours.
9. In 2018–19, there were 45,924 finished admission episodes with primary diagnosis of epilepsy in England.⁷
10. Rare and complex epilepsies affect nearly 5 people in 10,000 of the general population (European data).⁸

Cost

11. Using 2019 data:⁹
    • the average annual cost per person with epilepsy ranged from $204 in low-income countries to $11,432 in high-income countries [based on “a highly skewed database”].
    • applying per person costs to the estimated 52.51 million people in the world with epilepsy and adjusting for the treatment gap, the total global cost of epilepsy was $119.27 billion.
12. Health economic data are lacking. “The original NICE guideline on epilepsy (2004) stated that the annual estimated cost of established epilepsy was £2 billion (direct and indirect costs). However, newer and more expensive antiseizure medications are now being prescribed. With an increase in treatment costs likely in coming years, it is essential to ensure that antiseizure medications with proven clinical and cost effectiveness are identified.”^9a

Investment in epilepsy research

13. UK Analysis of national data shows ~£18 million was spent on epilepsy research during 2022.¹⁰ In contrast, £107.9 million was invested in dementia research by the UK government in 2019/20:^{11, 12}
    • NIHR funded £29 million
    • MRC funded £44 million
    • BBSRC funded £29 million
    • ESRC funded £5.9 million
    • Based on an estimate of 885,000 people aged 65 and older living with dementia in 2019,¹³ this equates to £121.92 per person with dementia (65+ years).
    • Based on an estimate of 630,000 people with epilepsy (see above), the research spend was £28.57 per person with epilepsy.
14. USA The picture is similar – compare the scales for the y-axes.

Figure 1: US research funding for epilepsy.¹⁴

Figure 2: US research funding for Alzheimer’s disease including related dementias.¹⁴

Risk factors

15. People living in high and medium deprivation have an increased risk of incident epilepsy of around 34% and 23%, respectively, compared with those living in low deprivation.¹⁵

Historical perspective¹⁶

16. The discovery of epilepsy can be dated back to around 2000 BCE in Mesopotamia, where one of the first written descriptions of epilepsy was recorded.
17. In ancient Greece, where epilepsy was considered a divine punishment by the gods; in Sparta, all babies with epilepsy were left to die on Taygetus mountain.
18. The word ‘epilepsy’ is originally derived from the ancient Greek word epilamanein, which means ‘to be possessed’ or ‘to be seized’.
19. In 1875 Hughlings Jackson, the father of epilepsy, recognised that seizures were linked to abnormal electrical discharges occurring in the brain.

Epilepsy-associated deaths

20. The most common causes of death directly linked to epilepsy are sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP), status epilepticus, unintentional injuries, and suicide.¹⁷