Can technology help reduce risk of harm in patients with epilepsy?

Sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP) is possibly the most common cause of death as a result of complications from epilepsy, accounting for between 7.5% to 17% of all epilepsy-related deaths and 50% of all deaths in refractory epilepsy. The UK has 600 000 people with epilepsy (PWE), 30% being treatment resistant. Sudden death is 20-fold higher in PWE than the general population. Epilepsy is the fifth highest cause of life-years lost in men and eighth in women in the UK. The public health burden of SUDEP alone is estimated as second only to stroke among neurological conditions.

Forty-two per cent of all deaths are considered avoidable. Consequently, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) epilepsy guidelines in 2004 and 2012 recommend discussion of SUDEP with newly-diagnosed PWE. This is rarely delivered and until recently only 4% of PWE had a recorded SUDEP discussion.