Methods and systems for detecting a seizure event, including receiving heart beat data versus time for a patient, detecting an increase in the heart rate of a patient from a baseline heart rate to an elevated heart rate, detecting a decrease in heart rate from the elevated heart rate, for a time interval occurring during said decrease in heart rate, determining at least one of a) a rate of decrease in heart rate and b) a rate of change in a rate of decrease in heart rate, and detecting a seizure event in response to determining at least one of a) a rate of decrease in heart rate greater than a threshold rate of decrease, and b) a rate of change in the rate of decrease less than a threshold rate of change in a rate of decrease.
