FEEN report on epilepsy in Spain

Abstract Introduction Epilepsy is a very common disease in Spain. There is a great lack of information on real epidemiological data and the patient impact of this disease. The objective of the Spanish Foundation for Neurological Diseases (FEEN) report is to collect epidemiological data, morbidity, mortality and costs of this disease in Spain. Development A search was carried out in Medline on publications up to 2010, as well as a review of data published by the Spanish National Statistics Institute (INE). There are about 400,000 patients with epilepsy in Spain. Approximately 5–10% of the population will experience a seizure in their lifetime, and up to 20% of these will have recurrent seizures. Using hospital discharge report data, hospital admissions for epilepsy are around 35 patients per 100,000 patients. Mortality risk in epileptic patients is two or three times higher than in non-epileptics. The mean total annual cost of drug-resistant epilepsy patient in Spain is 6935 euros. The total cost of epilepsy according to data from the year 2000 could be around 5% of the total health budget. Conclusions It is very important to maintain disease registers. This initiative should be encouraged by the patient associations and scientific societies. This report confirms that epilepsy has a great social and health impact on the population.