Epilepsy: Does the Weather Trigger Seizures?

Larissa Melville completed her traineeship in the editorial team of . After studying biology at Ludwig Maximilians University and the Technical University of Munich, she first got to know digital media online at Focus and then decided to learn medical journalism from scratch.

More about the experts All content is checked by medical journalists.

Stress, alcohol, and flickering lights can trigger an epileptic fit. Obviously, the weather can also be problematic.

"We have often been told by patients that they perceive a connection between weather conditions and epileptic seizures," reports neurologist Florian Rakers from Jena University Hospital. Especially when the weather changes, the risk of seizures increases.

Rakers and his colleagues have now checked whether this self-perception can be scientifically proven. To do this, they evaluated data from over 600 epilepsy patients who had been admitted to the university hospital between 2003 and 2010 because of an epileptic seizure. Only cases were taken into account in which the exact time of the attack could be determined. The researchers put these data in relation to the weather on the three days before the epileptic seizure.

Low air pressure is critical

In fact, the researchers were able to establish a connection between the weather and the number of epileptic seizures: At low air pressure and high humidity, there were more - at summer temperatures, on the other hand, there were fewer.

"The result surprised us in its clarity - the risk of an epileptic seizure increases with falling air pressure," explains Matthias Schwab, senior author of the study. The previous day has the greatest influence on the risk of seizures. For every 10.7 hectopascal by which the air pressure drops, it increases by 14 percent.

Patients who normally experience comparatively seldom seizures and only take one drug for treatment seem to be particularly sensitive to low air pressure: their risk rose by a full 36 percent for every 10.7 hectopascals of air pressure drop. Patients whose epilepsy was treated with two or more drugs were less affected by the weather.

Beware of cold and high humidity

In addition to the air pressure, the air humidity also seems to play a role: If the air humidity is over 80 percent, the risk of an epileptic seizure increases by up to 48 percent. "However, this influence only became apparent on the third day," says Rakers. "Infections may play a decisive role here."

On the other hand, warm summer temperatures had a positive effect: at temperatures above 20 degrees the risk of seizures was only half as high as on cold days.

Weather in view

“Our study confirms the relationship between weather events and epileptic seizures observed by patients,” says study leader Rakers, summarizing the results. If you suffer from epilepsy, you should keep an eye on the weather report, avoid other seizure triggers such as alcohol on critical days and take it easy as possible.

Before the researchers can derive general recommendations from the result, further investigations are necessary. This includes studies in other climatic regions but also studies on patients with epilepsy who have not been treated as inpatients.

Brain malfunction

In Germany around 500,000 people suffer from epilepsy, of which there are very different forms. It is based on a malfunction of the brain: nerve cells suddenly fire synchronous and uncontrolled impulses. This becomes noticeable through epileptic seizures, which usually occur suddenly and subside after seconds or a few minutes.

Depending on the affected brain region, the symptoms can be very different. The so-called grand mal seizures, in which the patient passes out and cramps, are particularly severe. Others are mainly associated with a clouding of consciousness and are largely inconspicuous.

Tags:  toadstool poison plants fitness teeth