OBJECTIVES: Epilepsy is the second most frequent neurological disease among adults; approximately 50-60 thousand people suffer from epilepsy in Hungary. With our survey we aimed to assess the cost of illness from a societal viewpoint as well as the quality of life associated with epilepsy in Hungary. METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional questionnaire survey of 100 consecutive patients in 2 epilepsy centres in Hungary in collaboration with epilepsy specialists. The self-developed questionnaire consisted of general and disease-specific parts to determine costs associated with epilepsy. Questions related to basic demographic characteristics, disease progression and health and social services used in the past 12 months, disease-associated non-medical services, as well as the productivity losses of epilepsy. Two generic quality of life questionnaires, EQ-5D and SF-36 were also used.  RESULTS: A total number of 100 patients were assessed (60% female). The average age was 36.7 years (SD. 12.5), average disease duration was 15 years (SD. 12). Quality of life calculations resulted in mean of 0.83 (SD. 0.24) in EQ-5D, 74 (SD. 16) in VAS scale and 72.3 (SD. 20.2) in SF-36. Cost-of-illness calculations were carried out and direct (15%) and indirect costs (85%) were determined. The annual total cost of epilepsy per capita was estimated to be a mean of €5179 (SD. €10,822) with the human resource method, while €2,552/capita/year (SD. 8,659) by the friction cost method.  CONCLUSIONS: Comparing the 100 patients’ data with data from previous EQ-5D based population-sample survey shows that quality of life among people with epilepsy was lower than among the average Hungarian population. We found significant correlation (at p<0.05) among all of the quality of life results and the yearly total costs (calculating both with human capital and friction cost methods).