2012 Most Recent Epilepsy Statistics | June 27, 2012

These numbers may scare you, depress you, or stir you into action. Whatever your reaction, they’re inconvertibility true. From the Institute of Medicine, via the Epilepsy Therapy Project itself…

65 million…

Individuals in the world have epilepsy.

33 million…

The population of Canada.

54 million…

The population of France.

150,000…

New cases of epilepsy in the United States every year.

1 in 10,000…

Newly diagnosed epilepsy patients that will die from sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP).

38…

Drugs that are available for epilepsy use world-wide.

7th…

The rank that epilepsy merits on the global burden of mental health, neurological and substance use disorders worldwide after Alzheimer’s, schizophrenia, and depression and alcohol use; but ahead of migraine, panic disorder, insomnia, post-traumatic stress, Parkinson’s disease, and multiple sclerosis.

2…

Number of antiepileptic drugs that needs to be tried and failed in order to be considered drug resistant to epilepsy.

1…

is the number of daytime seizures needed to trigger driving restrictions in every state in the U.S.

32…

days is the average waiting time for a new patient to see an epilepsy specialist.

25…

days waiting time on average for an inpatient evaluation to an epilepsy monitoring unit in the US.

166…

Number of epilepsy centers in the United States.

1 in every 26

Americans will develop epilepsy over the course of their lifetime.

by Joseph I. Sirven, MD

Editor-in-Chief, epilepsy.com



