Increased Risk of Suicide and Accidental Death to People with Epilepsy Found

April 10, 2018

new study has shown that people diagnosed with epilepsy in England and Wales are at increased risk of dying from suicide and accidents.

Though the risks of dying unnaturally for people with epilepsy are low in absolute terms (0.3-0.5%), they are higher than in people without epilepsy says Dr Hayley Gorton from The University of Manchester.

The research conducted at the University of Manchester and Swansea University, and funded by the NIHR, is published in the journal JAMA Neurology.

The team analyzed data from 44,678 people with epilepsy compared to 891,429 persons without epilepsy in England and 14,051 people with epilepsy compared to 279,365 individuals without epilepsy in Wales.