The research, led by Dr. Seena Fazel from the University of Oxford, compared almost 70,000 epilepsy sufferers born in Sweden between 1954 and 2009. Dr. Fazel said: “Our results have significant public health implications as around 70 million people worldwide have epilepsy, and emphasise that carefully assessing and treating psychiatric disorders as part of standard checks in persons with epilepsy could help reduce the risk of premature death in these patients".
Mental illness increases early mortality risk in epilepsy patients
3 September 2013
Epilepsy sufferers are 11 times more likely to die prematurely, compared to the general public. As if that was not enough, new research which looked at almost 70,000 epileptic patients, finds that the risk of early death for people suffering from epilepsy is compounded by co-existing mental illnesses, particularly in the case of depression and substance or alcohol dependency.