Complications
Head trauma may be a cause of seizures; people with seizures may experience head trauma as a result of a seizure episode.
May be due to a fall precipitated by a seizure, a fall due to poor balance caused by anticonvulsant drug toxicity, or osteopenia/osteoporosis as a consequence of long-term anticonvulsant use (thought to be more common from the use of P450 enzyme-inducing anticonvulsants such as carbamazepine, phenytoin, phenobarbital, and primidone).
A common complaint in patients with epilepsy. It may be due to recurrent seizures, or adverse effects from a number of anticonvulsant agents. In patients with hippocampal pathology it may, in part, be related to cell/volume loss in the hippocampus.
Mood disorders (e.g., depression, anxiety) are common among people with epilepsy, and can negatively impact on seizure outcome and quality of life.[174][175]
Patients should be monitored for mood disorders at each review, and referred for treatment as appropriate. Evidence to inform choice of antidepressant and anticonvulsant drugs in people with epilepsy and depression is very limited.[176]
This refers to the phenomenon of sudden, unexpected, unexplained death in people with epilepsy with no obvious cause on postmortem examination. Incidence in adults has been reported as 1.2 per 1000 patient-years, but may be underestimated.[170][173]
The major risk factor for SUDEP is the occurrence of generalized tonic-clonic seizures (GTCS); the risk of SUDEP increases in association with increasing frequency of GTCS.[170]
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