A class of drugs already on the market to lower blood pressure appears to reduce adults' risk of developing epilepsy, Stanford Medicine researchers and their colleagues have discovered. The finding comes from an analysis of the medical records of more than 2 million Americans taking blood pressure medications. The study, published June 17 in JAMA Neurology , suggests that the drugs, called angiotensin receptor blockers , could prevent epilepsy in people at highest risk of the disease, including older adults who have had strokes.
Study: Angiotensin Receptor Blockers for Hypertension and Risk of Epilepsy. Image Credit: aipicte / Shutterstock "This is incredibly exciting because we don't currently have any medicines that prevent epilepsy," said Kimford Meador, MD, a professor of neurology and the neurosciences and the senior author of the paper. "I hope these initial findings lead to randomized clinical trials.
" While epilepsy is often diagnosed during childhood, more than 1% of people over age 65 are diagnosed with the recurring seizures that characterize the disorder. These seizures can temporarily disrupt the brain's function and cause various symptoms. In older adults, the most common risk factor for developing epilepsy is stroke; about 10% of stroke survivors experience seizures within five years.
Vascular disease and chronic high blood pressure, even in the absence of stroke, also boost epilepsy risk. "This can be a very debilitating disorder, and it's much more common in .
