[Prevalence of several neurological diseases in the central provinces of the Iberian Peninsula in eighteen-year-old males].

The prevalence of several neurological diseases has been estimated in eighteen-year-old males living in the central provinces of the Iberian Peninsula (Avila, Badajoz, Caceres, Ciudad Real, Cuenca, Guadalajara, Madrid, Toledo and Segovia). To this end, the yearly recruitment census and the neurological evaluations in the recruits form each year between 1985 and 1989 were used. The yearly prevalence rates (per 10,0000) were evaluated for an overall population of 235,976 recruits. Particularly reliable and accurate, among the observed rates, were those related to epilepsy (513), multiple sclerosis (7.6), hereditary ataxias (10.6), neurological form of Wilson's disease (1.7), Tourette's disease (1.3), syringomyelia (0.9), focal neuropathies (74.6), diffuse neuropathies (17.8), myotonic dystrophy (5.5), congenital myotonia (4.7), myasthenia gravis (3.0), hypokalemic periodic paralysis (1.7), and myopathies as a whole (31.8). The possible usefulness to carry out studies with this outlook and the type of conditions more adequate for them are discussed.