What's in store 5 decades following childhood-onset epilepsy?
A 45-year study of 179 individuals with childhood-onset epilepsy indicates that patients' long-term health is excellent, with most attaining 10-year remission off medications, which is the definition of resolved epilepsy.
Despite having excellent seizure outcomes, individuals often have abnormal neurologic signs including markers of cerebrovascular disease that may be a risk factor for future stroke and cognitive impairment.
"The cohort was studied in-depth with detailed neuropsychological assessments and multimodality imaging techniques, all of which will provide very unique insights into the aging process of persons with 'uncomplicated' childhood onset epilepsies," said Dr. Matti Sillanpaa, lead author of the Epilepsia study.
More information: Sillanpää, M., Anttinen, A., Rinne, J. O., Joutsa, J., Sonninen, P., Erkinjuntti, M., Hermann, B., Karrasch, M., Saarinen, M., Tiitta, P. and Shinnar, S. (2015), Childhood-onset epilepsy five decades later. A prospective population-based cohort study. Epilepsia. DOI: 10.1111/epi.13187
