Epilepsy more common than earlier thought: Study

By Dr. Ananya Mandal, MDDec 29 2010

Epilepsy prevalence and incidence is greater than earlier thought in the United States. The latest study shows that one in every 26 people in the United States will develop epilepsy at some point in their life. Experts believe this new revelation calls for more attention and funding for the disease.

Dr. Joseph I. Sirven, the chairman-elect of the Epilepsy Foundation's professional advisory board and a professor and chairman of neurology at the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Arizona said, “This study is an important analysis of the potential number of patients of epilepsy in the United States.” Sirven, an independent observer of the study said the study shows that older adults are more at risk for developing epilepsy and larger number of people will develop epilepsy during their lifetime than thought as is evident from the results. He added, “The study suggests up to 12 million Americans will develop epilepsy, which is a greater number than expected… Moreover, this is a conservative estimate and not the worst case scenario as the lifetime risk would be higher in more urban areas. Clearly, more attention needs to be paid to this condition.” The findings are published in the Jan. 4 issue of Neurology. The study was supported by the National Institute for Neurologic Disorders and Stroke and the National Institutes of Health.

Lead researcher Dale C. Hesdorffer, an associate professor of clinical epidemiology at Sergievsky Center at Columbia University Medical Center in New York City and her team looked for the likelihood of developing epilepsy among residents of Rochester, Minn., between 1960 and 1979. From the identified 412 people with the disease during that period, they calculated the lifetime risk of developing epilepsy at 1.6 percent up to age 50 and 3 percent up to age 80. Over the years, the lifetime risk increased from 3.5 percent in the 1960-1969 to 4.2 percent for 1970 to 1979, the researchers found. Hesdorffer said, “Our results highlight the need for more research using epilepsy surveillance data, especially given the aging population in the United States… Such surveillance will also provide useful information for health-care planners as they address the service needs of people with epilepsy.”

According to Dr. Edwin Trevathan, dean of the St. Louis University School of Public Health and author of an accompanying editorial in the journal, “As a result, we do not have good data to inform decisions made by our health leaders, and some of our best researchers are analyzing data that are 30 to 50 years old.” He called for additional congressional funding so that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention can collect needed data. He said, “Epilepsy has a major impact on public health…A national approach to monitoring epilepsy trends is desperately needed in order to monitor the impact of improvements in epilepsy care, to identify problems with epilepsy care that need to be corrected and to provide up-to-date data for researchers.”