Treatment, seizure-free periods, and educational achievements: a follow-up study among children with epilepsy and healthy children.

The medical situation (seizure-free periods, use of medicine, medical supervision) of a group of 136 epileptic children was investigated at the age of 11. One hundred and nine of these children were individually matched with 109 children without chronic illness and their educational achievements were compared. We came by these groups via their family doctors or their schools/teachers respectively. We followed-up their medical and educational situation 5 years later. In this way we have been able to establish long-term trends regarding the medical situation and the educational achievements of the children. From the data it appeared that between half and two-thirds of the children were seizure-free for 5 years or longer. One-quarter, however, seemed to be therapy resident and still had seizures. At the age of 16, four out of 10 children were no longer under the supervision of any health care provider; five out of 10 did not use antiepileptic drugs anymore; but 20% of them still had seizures. There was no evidence of such improvements in the educational careers of these children: their educational levels stayed behind those of the controls.