The Prevalence of Epilepsy in Patients with Celiac Disease

Abstract

Summary: Purpose:The relation between celiac disease and epilepsy is uncertain. Previous studies have suggested an association, whereas others have not.Methods: We ascertained the prevalence of active epilepsy in a cohort of 801 celiac patients by patient interviews and retrospective case note review. All the celiac patients had diagnostic confirmation by small bowel biopsy.Results: Twenty-one patients had a history of epileptic seizures, but only nine (1.1%) had active epilepsy. No specific epileptic syndrome was identified.Conclusions: This study suggests that a causal relation between gluten sensitivity and active epilepsy is unlikely.

Prevalence of Celiac Disease in Children With Epilepsy

“…Numerous cases have already been described of gluten-sensitive patients with a high proportion of neurological symptoms of unknown origin, including cerebellar ataxia, peripheral neuropathy, multifocal encephalopathy, epilepsy, dementia, neuromyelitis optica, muscular hypotonia and delayed motor development (18,22,25,26,28,34,40,46,48,53,55) . Some studies published in the literature have attempted to demonstrate an association between celiac disease and epilepsy (4,7,8,11,12,13,18,30,32,35,42,43,44) . Some investigators have already carried out studies on the association between celiac disease and epilepsy.…”

Extraintestinal manifestations of celiac disease

“…It is therefore important for clinicians of all subspecialties to be aware of the varied symptoms and diseases associated with celiac disease and to consider performing celiac serologies liberally. Neurologic Peripheral neuropathy [9] Headache [24,25] Depression/anxiety [27,28] Cerebellar ataxia [13,14] Epilepsy [21,22] Endocrine Type 1 diabetes mellitus [67] Autoimmune thyroid disorders [65] Addison's disease [69] Alopecia aerate [44] Cardiac Idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy [76] Autoimmune myocarditis [71] Hepatic Primary biliary cirrhosis [77] Autoimmune hepatitis [78] Autoimmune cholangitis [79] Rheumatologic Oligoarticular arthritis [62] Juvenile arthritis [80] Sjögren syndrome [68] Other Anemia [32]…”

“…A high prevalence of epilepsy (3.5% to 5.5%) has been reported by Dalgic et al [20] in Peripheral neuropathy 49 [9] Headache 46 [9] Depression/anxiety 31 [10] Ataxia 5.4 [11] Migraines 4.4 [9] Epilepsy 3.3-5.5 [12] Less common manifestations patients with celiac disease compared with normal control subjects. This appears to occur mainly in children rather than adults [21]. Nevertheless, seizure control has been reported to improve or stabilize in patients who adhere to a gluten-free diet, particularly if the diet is initiated shortly after the onset of epilepsy [22].…”

Autoimmune Diseases Associated with Epilepsy

“…[94] Çölyak hastalığında epilepsi prevelansı %1 ile 5,5 arasındadır. [95][96][97][98] 29.000 çölyak hastası ve 143.000 kontrolle yapılan epidemiyolojik bir çalışmada, Çölyak hastalığında epilepsi riskinin 1,4 kat arttığı bildirilmiştir. [99] Romatoid serebral vaskülit küçük ve orta büyüklükteki damarların nekrotizan vaskülitidir.…”

“…[97,98,100] İtalya, İspanya ve Arjantin gibi coğrafi bölge-lerde, Çölyak hastalığı oksipital kalsifikasyonlar ve epilepsi ile ilişkilidir. [97,98] İkiyüzden az sayıda olgunun olduğu bu hasta grubunda oksipital nöbetler en sık görülen nöbet tipidir.…”