Sleep apnea induced seizure in a non-epileptic patient?
Saturday, July 17th, 2010 at
11:07 am
Is there a relationship?
I know that it is well documented that sleep apnea can cause seizures in a patient diagnosed with epilepsy but what about in a patient with no clinical history of epilepsy or seizure disorder. I can’t seem to find any difinitive references on the subject.
Tagged with: Apnea • induced • nonepileptic • Patient • seizure • Sleep
Filed under: Sleep Apnea Causes
Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!
Sleep apnea causes sleep deprivation and hypoxia…both of which will lower the seizure threshold. “Non-epileptic” patients that have seizures related to sleep apnea probably have some predisposition to seizures that would not otherwise be identified if it weren’t for the stressors related to the apnea.
As a pharmacist you are probably well aware, but its a cruel relationship that some AEDs may actually worsen apnea due to central respiratory depression and reduced tone of respiratory musculature.