Some patients may predict their seizures

Some patients with epilepsy can reliably predict when they are likely to have a seizure, says a study by the Montefiore Medical Center in New York City.

Many patients report they can identify periods of increased risk for seizure, but this has not been prospectively tested before, says study author Dr. Sheryl Haut of the Montefiore Medical Center. Fifty-seven patients were asked to keep a daily log in which they predicted how likely they were to experience a seizure in the coming 24 hours.

The study, published in the journal Neurology, found the patients correctly predicted about 32 percent of their seizures and 83 percent of their seizure-free days. Seizures were twice as likely to happen in the 24 hours following a positive prediction, says Haut.

The study found a subgroup of 12 patients in which seizures were more than three times as likely following a prediction, says Haut. While these patients were younger and had a higher seizure rate, no other factor stood out as a likely reason for their higher accuracy.