ABSTRACT
With the falling incidence and prevalence of seizures in children and younger adults, older adults with epilepsy and epileptic fits are emerging as probably the single most important group of people with seizures. It is therefore to be regretted that they are also the least researched. There are several reasons for this: the frequency of seizures occurring for the first time in old age is still underestimated by many practitioners (Craig and Tallis, 1991); it is tempting to believe that information obtained more easily in a younger population can be extrapolated to older people with seizures; and, least acceptably of all, it is often assumed that seizures are less important in older people than in younger people.
