Progress in predicting seizure episodes with nonlinear methods.

One of the most interesting and significant areas of epileptology has been the prediction of the onset of a seizure episode from preictal activity with nonlinear methods. Not only does this type of study have heuristic value for clinical neurophysiology, but it also has potential utilitarian value for the patient with seizures. In this review, 47 reports from 12 centers with multiple studies are presented in chronological order, as are single reports from 21 other centers. The chronological order was chosen to see if progress in the form of earlier prediction was made over time. Only 21% of these reports could provide specific times for the prediction of seizure onset. The range of values was several minutes to 4 hours, with an average (median) of 6-7 minutes. Some reports (16%) had negative or nonspecific findings that prediction times could not be provided. Thus, only limited progress has been made in predicting a seizure from preictal activity, but many other related phenomena have also been studied with nonlinear methods with some success.