Risk factors for SUDEP

The American Academy of Neurology and the American Epilepsy Society used two systematic searches of the literature: firstly for articles from the earliest available to November 2010, and this was repeated for articles published between November 2015 and April 2015 to inform their guidance regarding SUDEP prevalence and risk factors.¹ One of the questions the committee posed was “Are there any risk factors for SUDEP?”¹ GTCS was found to be the strongest risk factor for SUDEP overall, but with the highest risk in those individuals experiencing more than 3 GTCS per year, with an odds ratio of greater than 15 when compared with no GTCS.¹

Reference:

1.Harden C, Tomson T, Gloss D, et al. Practice guideline summary: Sudden unexpected death in epilepsy incidence rates and risk factors: Report of the Guideline Development, Dissemination, and Implementation Subcommittee of the American Academy of Neurology and the American Epilepsy Society. Neurology 2017; 88 (17): 1674–1680.