Epilepsy and seizure-related deaths: Mortality statistics do not tell the complete story

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: The objective of the study was to identify where epilepsy or seizures may be the underlying cause of death but not identified by the death certification process in the Australian coronial system and to better characterize such deaths. METHODS: Australian National Coronial Information System (NCIS) closed cases for the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) (population average 348,000) over 13 years were searched using cause of death, and a text search of police and autopsy reports, to identify all deaths where epilepsy or seizures were mentioned. Deaths where the underlying cause of death was not seizures or epilepsy were excluded (including suicide). The remaining cases (75) were ..