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Sleep Apnea causing epilepsy?!
Tue, 01/03/2006 - 23:40Comments
Re: Sleep Apnea causing epilepsy?!
Submitted by splarty on Tue, 2010-05-04 - 16:17
Rhondadbe,
I am afraid that your Neurologists have been misleading you. There is significant evidence that there is a pathogenic link between apnea and seizures (i.e. apnea can cause seizures and does exacerbate seizures). There has been a substantial amount of work done since the 1980s that provide evidence of the link. For example:
"Epilepsy and sleep apnea syndrome," Neurology, 1994, vol. 44, no11, pp. 2060-2064, "Obstructive sleep apnea is common in medically refractory epilepsy patients," Neurology, 2000, vol. 55, no7, pp. 1002-1007 (where one third of patients with epilepsy were found to have apnea, 50% for males). In 2006 a researcher went as far as to say: "we did observe a significant trend toward improvement in seizure frequency among patients who received CPAP - a result that rivals that of an antiepileptic drug," principal investigator Beth Ann Malow, MD, from Vanderbilt University. “Three of the patients became seizure free and the fourth patient had a greater than 95% reduction in seizure frequency following only the initiation of therapy for the sleep apnoea.”Vaughn et al., 1996 .
In late onset epilepsy (i.e. onset of seizures in older people) a recent study (NEUROLOGY 2007;69:1823-1827
© 2007 American Academy of Neurology, Obstructive sleep apnea is associated with seizure occurrence in older adults with epilepsy, Annette M. Chihorek, MD, Bassel Abou-Khalil, MD and Beth A. Malow, MD, MS) concludes: "Obstructive sleep apnea is associated with seizure exacerbation in older adults with epilepsy, and its treatment may represent an important avenue for improving seizure control in this population."
Given that this evidence has been available for many years, it is shocking how categorical your response to this thread is. Misinformation like this can stop people getting appropriate treatment.
I started having seizures in my sleep when I was 32. It took 7 years for my apnea to be treated properly (even though my wife noticed that I stopped breathing in my sleep, and I told my neurologists ... however, I was "not fat enough" to have apnea in their opinion). I have not had a seizure since.
Sleep and seizures have been linked since the time of Hippocrates.
Rhondadbe,
I am afraid that your Neurologists have been misleading you. There is significant evidence that there is a pathogenic link between apnea and seizures (i.e. apnea can cause seizures and does exacerbate seizures). There has been a substantial amount of work done since the 1980s that provide evidence of the link. For example:
"Epilepsy and sleep apnea syndrome," Neurology, 1994, vol. 44, no11, pp. 2060-2064, "Obstructive sleep apnea is common in medically refractory epilepsy patients," Neurology, 2000, vol. 55, no7, pp. 1002-1007 (where one third of patients with epilepsy were found to have apnea, 50% for males). In 2006 a researcher went as far as to say: "we did observe a significant trend toward improvement in seizure frequency among patients who received CPAP - a result that rivals that of an antiepileptic drug," principal investigator Beth Ann Malow, MD, from Vanderbilt University. “Three of the patients became seizure free and the fourth patient had a greater than 95% reduction in seizure frequency following only the initiation of therapy for the sleep apnoea.”Vaughn et al., 1996 .
In late onset epilepsy (i.e. onset of seizures in older people) a recent study (NEUROLOGY 2007;69:1823-1827
© 2007 American Academy of Neurology, Obstructive sleep apnea is associated with seizure occurrence in older adults with epilepsy, Annette M. Chihorek, MD, Bassel Abou-Khalil, MD and Beth A. Malow, MD, MS) concludes: "Obstructive sleep apnea is associated with seizure exacerbation in older adults with epilepsy, and its treatment may represent an important avenue for improving seizure control in this population."
Given that this evidence has been available for many years, it is shocking how categorical your response to this thread is. Misinformation like this can stop people getting appropriate treatment.
I started having seizures in my sleep when I was 32. It took 7 years for my apnea to be treated properly (even though my wife noticed that I stopped breathing in my sleep, and I told my neurologists ... however, I was "not fat enough" to have apnea in their opinion). I have not had a seizure since.
Sleep and seizures have been linked since the time of Hippocrates.
Re: Sleep Apnea causing epilepsy?!
Submitted by rhondadbe on Sat, 2007-11-03 - 23:27
Sleep apnea doesn't cause epilepsy. However, a lot of people who have epilepsy also have sleep apnea. That was explained to me by one of my Neurologists....who did the sleep test. They don't know why, but he said they have seen a lot of people with epilepsy also having sleep apnea. Sleep apnea doesn't cause seizures, but it does cause other serious problems as you get older of it's not treated.