The session with Bettina Schmitz and Pavel Klein addressed physical and psychiatric comorbidities, and the impact of improved seizure control on mortality and morbidity.
Bettina Schmitz pointed out in describing the emotional and social burden of uncontrolled epilepsy, that despite the introduction of new ASMs over the last 25 years, many people with epilepsy do not achieve seizure freedom,1-3 with seizures affecting all aspects of their life.4,5
Epilepsy is one of the three most costly neurological diseases6, with poorer seizure control and comorbid anxiety/depression associated with higher costs.7-10
Schmitz concluded with findings from an experimental model for epilepsy and depression showing that vulnerability to comorbidities after epilepsy onset due to unresolved past stressful events may be predicted and reversed.11
Prof. Dr. med Bettina Schmitz is the head of department of Neurology with a Treatment Center of Acute Disorders of Cerebral Circulation and Epilepsy at the Vivantes Humboldt Hospital and professor at Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Germany.
Norway: NO23975P June 2024