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In a recent editorial “Big Data – Big Trouble: The two faces of publishing results from big data studies based on cohorts with poor clinical definition” published in Seizure 2023; 111:21–2 [1], von Wrede, Witt, and Helmstaedter expressed their concerns about “big-data” epidemiological investigations that are increasingly being published within epilepsy research. Their concerns relate to the potential for misinterpretation of evidence from epidemiological studies by media, lays, and even health care professionals and criticise big-data studies for lacking credibility and having unclear implications for clinical practice.