The contributing factors to medical cost of epilepsy: an estimation based on a French prospective cohort study of patients with newly diagnosed epileptic seizures (the CAROLE study)

Epilepsy is a common neurological condition with significant resource impli cations. An estimation was performed in France of the direct medical cost o f patients presented with newly diagnosed seizures and followed during the first two years after diagnosis. This estimation was based on the service u tilization data collected from French prospective cohort study (CAROLE: 194 2 patients enrolled). Costs were estimated in a societal perspective in 199 8 value. The impact on the costs of different factors like age, aetiologic categorization and severity of seizures (type and number of seizures), and treatment by anti-epileptic drugs (AEDs) was analysed. The mean annual dire ct epilepsy-related costs per patient were estimated to be 14 305 F and 376 6 F for the first and the second year of follow-up respectively, 68% and 40 % of the costs were devoted to inpatient care. Costs during the first year were highly sensitive to aetiologic categorization of seizures at inclusion and to other clinical parameters. Second-year costs had a much lower varia nce and were sensitive to frequency of seizures and the face of being treat ed or not by AEDs. Our data emphasize the importance of seizure control as means of reducing the costs of epilepsy especially during the first year of follow-up. (C) 2000 BEA Trading Ltd.