A NIH-funded study indicates that sleep apnea and nocturnal hypoxia are linked to an increased risk of late-onset epilepsy, suggesting that managing sleep disorders may help prevent this form of epilepsy in older adults. According to a new study funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and published in Sleep , there is an association between sleep apnea, low oxygen levels during sleep, and the onset of epilepsy after the age of 60, termed late-onset epilepsy. This connection persists regardless of other established risk factors for both conditions, such as hypertension and stroke.
These findings could enhance our understanding of how sleep disorders and late-onset epilepsy are related and might also reveal new potential treatment targets. “There’s increasing evidence that late-onset epilepsy may be indicative of underlying vascular disease, or neurodegenerative disease, even potentially as a preclinical marker of neurodegenerative disease,” said Rebecca Gottesman, M.D.
, Ph.D., chief of the Stroke Branch at the NIH’s National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), and an author on the study.
“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.” Research Methodology and Findings Researchers, led by Christopher Carosella, M.
D., assistant professor of neurology at.
