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Sleep Disorders Linked With Epilepsy in Older Adults
Sleep apnea and low oxygen levels during sleep are associated with late-onset epilepsy independently of hypertension and stroke, according to a study published in the journal Sleep.
“Compared to other age groups, older adults have the highest incidence of new cases of epilepsy — up to half of which have no clear cause. Sleep apnea is common among people with epilepsy, but the association is not well understood,” said researcher Rebecca Gottesman, MD, PhD, chief of the stroke branch at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, part of the National Institutes of Health.
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To clarify the relationship among sleep apnea, other sleep characteristics, and epilepsy that first occurs after age 60, researchers looked at Medicare claims and data for more than 1309 participants in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities study. The Medicare claims were used to identify diagnoses of late-onset epilepsy, and study data provided insight into sleep-disordered breathing and cardiovascular disease.
Oxygen saturation that fell below 80% during sleep, or nocturnal hypoxia, in late midlife was associated with triple the likelihood of developing late-onset epilepsy, according to the study. Self-reported sleep apnea in later life was linked with double the odds of developing late-onset epilepsy.
Researchers reported that the degree of nocturnal hypoxia was associated with late-onset epilepsy independent of other comorbidities and demographic characteristics. The study did not find a link between apnea-hypopnea index, a measure of sleep apnea severity, with late-onset epilepsy.
Future studies are necessary to investigate whether treating sleep apnea could help prevent disease onset in people at risk for late-onset epilepsy, the research team advised.
“Discovering a reversible cause for the development of any type of idiopathic epilepsy is an aspirational goal for epilepsy researchers or clinicians,” said study corresponding author Christopher Carosella, MD, assistant professor of neurology at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland. “We hope this study might be a small first step in that direction and also an encouragement to evaluate and treat sleep disorders in patients with epilepsy.”
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