Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy (SUDEP)

It’s a little known fact that sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP) accounts for approximately 18% of all deaths among people with epilepsy. Drs. Ted Walczak and Ilo Leppik of MINCEP were lead authors of recent article on SUDEP in Neurology the Journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

The article, based on a five year study run out of MINCEP Epilepsy Care, is significant in that it determines a profile of the person with epilepsy most at risk of dying. Of the patients in the study, those who had tonic-clonic seizures, particularly if they took more than two antiepileptic medications, and those who had a Full Scale IQ of less than 70 were most at risk. The number of tonic-clonic seizures the patient experienced was a risk factor for women, but the data was not clear for men. This is expected to be clarified as more patients are studied for a longer period of time.

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