The NINCDS Collaborative Perinatal Project has provided a large prospectively defined pediatric population, unselected for level of risk, in which to investigate the prevalence and natural history of the most common convulsive disorder of childhood, febrile seizures. A series of papers has delineated the natural history of febrile seizures, and has identified risk factors for unfavorable outcome, and has reviewed the effect of sample selection on outcome. An NIH Consensus development meeting on Long-term Management of Children and Febrile Seizures was held. Results of the Consensus meeting, held in this year, are being prepared for publication in professional journals, and the papers are being edited for a monograph. A pilot study of cognitive and behavioral effects of anticonvulsant medication in children with febrile seizures is underway, and a major study planned which will evaluate the effects of medications and of recurrent seizures. A program announcement is planned to invite experiments on the effects of anticonvulsant agents on the developing nervous system.