The History of SUDEP

Two detailed studies by physicians working in the Craig Colony at he beginning of the twentieth century were in no doubt that epilepsy itself constituted a risk to life. The studies observe a diminution in status deaths, but no signs of a decrease in sudden deaths. The view of these writers was that many of these deaths were potentially preventable.

In 1904 Spratling wrote of epilepsy as :

" A disease which destroys life suddenly and without warning through a single brief attack, unaided by an accident to the patient at the moment.. and does so in 3 to 4 per cent of all who suffer from it."

Munson wrote a report in 1910 on 582 deaths among 2732 patients and concluded :

"A definite and fairly large group where neither accident of any kind nor suffocation can be assigned as the cause of death..(which is..intrinsic rather than extrinsic)… death is imminent at a time of seizures, unless help is at hand... Each patient must be seen every few minutes, for as has been noted these deaths occur very rapidly at times… The duration of life after the onset of the disease may be several years, but as the onset is very common in the early years of life, the net result is the premature death of the epileptic compared with normal people."