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Abstract
Summary
Globally, as populations age there will be challenges and opportunities to deliver optimal health care to senior citizens. Epilepsy, a condition characterised by spontaneous recurrent seizures, is common in older adults (aged >65 years) and yet has received comparatively little attention in this age group. In this Review, we evaluate the underlying causes of epilepsy in older people, explore difficulties in establishing a diagnosis of epilepsy in this population, discuss appropriate antiseizure medications, and evaluate potential surgical treatment options. We consider cognitive, psychological, and psychosocial comorbidities and the effect that epilepsy might have on an older person's broader social or care network in high-income versus middle-income and low-income countries. We emphasise the need for clinical trials to be more inclusive of older people with epilepsy to help inform therapeutic decision making and discuss whether measures to improve vascular risk factors might be an important strategy to reduce the probability of developing epilepsy.
Details
1 Oxford Epilepsy Research Group, National Institute for Health Research Oxford Biomedical Research Centre, Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, UK
2 Departments of Neurology and Population Health Sciences & Policy, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA
3 Department of Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford UK
4 National Institute for Health Research, Biomedical Research Centre, University College London Hospitals, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, London, UK; Chalfont Centre for Epilepsy, Chalfont St Peter, UK; Stichting Epilepsie Instellingen Nederland (SEIN), Heemstede, Netherlands