Stroke may increase risk of Epilepsy

The results of a study conducted in Norway indicate that stroke patients appear to be at increased risk for developing epileptic seizures. The study also shows that the severity of the stroke is a statistically significant predictor for epilepsy.

Health care professionals need to be aware of the risk of epilepsy after stroke since anti-epileptic drugs may be effective in preventing additional seizures, lead investigator Dr. Morten I. Lossius told Reuters Health.

Lossius, of the National Center for Epilepsy, Sandvika and colleagues conducted a long-term, follow-up study of 484 patients who had an ischemic stroke, a stroke resulting from an interruption of blood flow to the brain. The findings are published in the medical journal Epilepsia.

The investigators found that 12 (2.5 percent) patients developed epilepsy within one year of the stroke and 15 (3.1 percent) developed post-stroke epilepsy 7 to 8 years after the event. Post-stroke epilepsy was defined as having two or more unprovoked epileptic seizures one week or longer after a stroke.

Treatment in a specialized stroke unit versus a medical ward, age at the time of the stroke, and the location of the brain area damaged by the stroke, did not seem to influence the risk of developing epilepsy.

In an analysis that accounted for potential factors that may have increased the risk of epilepsy, stroke patients with a Scandinavian Stroke Scale score of less than 30 on admission, indicating a severe stroke, had an almost five-times greater risk of developing post-stroke epilepsy compared with those with less severe strokes.

It is important, Lossius concluded, to conduct more studies to find out if newer treatments, such as drugs that help break up the blood clots implicated in this type of stroke, can reduce the risk of epilepsy in these patients.