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The part of the following article that I really enjoyed is the fact that research has now shown that epilepsy patients are no more likely to commit suicide or crash their car than people without epilepsy. Unfortunately, it does look like we are more likely to be assaulted.
Patients with Epilepsy are at Higher Risk to be Assaulted
http://www.epilepsy.com/epilepsy/newsletter/mar11_assault
If you want to read the entire text it can be found here. Unfortunately you need to be a subscriber to the journal Neurology, but I've found my city library has an online subscription.
Patients with Epilepsy are at Higher Risk to be Assaulted
In the March 1, 2011 edition of Neurology (Neurology 76(9)801-806 2011) Drs. Kwon and colleagues from the Division of Neurology, Foothills Medical Center in Calgary, Alberta, report a fascinating population based study addressing some of the psychosocial consequences of epilepsy. The authors studied individuals with and without epilepsy using an administrative database in a Canadian health region with a population of 1.4 million people. They identified individuals who had a diagnosis of epilepsy based on physician claims, hospitalization or an emergency room visit. Four subjects without epilepsy were matched to one patient with epilepsy by age and sex and then a comparison was made for the incidence of motor vehicle accidents, attempted or completed suicide and/or inflicted injuries.
Of 10,240 individuals with epilepsy and 40,960 individuals without epilepsy, the investigators found that there was not a higher risk or either attempted or completed suicides, motor vehicle accidents in patients with epilepsy. However, they did find an increased risk of individuals with epilepsy for having injuries inflicted by others by assaults. The rationale as to why this is the case is unknown, but it does highlight a particularly troubling aspect of this condition that has not been reported in the past. For further information, the reader is referred to the March 1, 2011 issue of Neurology for the publication of the entire study.
http://www.epilepsy.com/epilepsy/newsletter/mar11_assault
If you want to read the entire text it can be found here. Unfortunately you need to be a subscriber to the journal Neurology, but I've found my city library has an online subscription.