Psychiatric Disorders and Epilepsy: A Deadly Combination?

Patients with epilepsy have a higher than expected rate of premature death. In a population-based study, researchers examined whether a co-occurring psychiatric disorder increased the risk for death from “external occurrences” (e.g., suicide and accidents).

The investigators examined Swedish national registry data from 1969 to 2009 on all 69,995 individuals with epilepsy, 660,869 age- and sex-matched general population controls, and 81,396 unaffected siblings. Confirming earlier findings, all-cause mortality was increased in the epilepsy group compared with the general population group (odds ratio, 11.1); the top two causes were linked to epilepsy (neoplasms and neurological diseases). External causes formed the third most common cause of de…