To compare epilepsy duration and progress and its influence over quality of life in patients in a third level hospital.

It is a cross-sectional and observational study. Our population consists in adults diagnosed with drug resistant epilepsy, individuals with intellectual disability were excluded. QOLIE-31 quality of life survey was applied, this tool consists of 6 subscales and a total score. The results of these scales were grouped in two variables according "age of onset" and "time of evolution".

This variables were studied and their mean scores were compared. We analyzed  the results using the software "SPSS VERSION 24". values under "p <0.05"were considered significant.

Sixty patients were enrolled, 60% women (n = 36), with a mean age of 30 ± 24 years. The subjects were classified into 2 groups, those who began their illness in childhood and individuals who began in adolescence or adult stage (after 10 years old), the scores of the scales of quality of life were compared. There were no significant differences in the overall score, however, individuals in early childhood showed lower scores in the domain "cognitive functioning"(p = .047).

When individuals were compared through the time of their illness evolution, we found significantly lower scores on “emotional well-being” subscale(p = .029) in patients with 10 or more years with their epileptic condition and “social function” was affected in subjects with above of 20 years of disease evolution(p = .011).

Early onset epilepsy compromises the cognitive development of our patients while emotional and social well-being are affected as epilepsy evolves, its necessary to give extra attention to theses areas in our patients first approach.