The duration of antiepileptic treatment
: 110 patients at the age of 18 years and older with different forms of epilepsy and epileptic syndromes were observed during 2-15 years after the first fits. These patients did not follow medical advice. All of them were either treated for short time, irregularly or were not treated at all after their first hospitalisation after beginning of epileptic attacks. In spite of violation of the treatment regimen, 80 patients experienced improvement, 60 patients achieved long-term remissions. It is suggested that even short-term antiepileptic therapy may activate the patient's own antiepileptic system. Negative prognostic criteria were involvement of the temporal structures, multifocal disease.