Observational studyNeurological sciences : official journal of the Italian Neurological Society and of the Italian Society of Clinical Neurophysiology2022
Impact of COVID-19 vaccine on epilepsy in adult subjects: an Italian multicentric experience.
Observational study in Neurological sciences : official journal of the Italian Neurological Society and of the Italian Society of Clinical Neurophysiology, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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8 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 26 citations in OpenAlex.
- Safety of COVID-19 vaccine in patients with epilepsy: a meta-analysis.Neurological sciences : official journal of the Italian Neurological Society and of the Italian Society of Clinical Neurophysiology · 2023Pooled it
- Risk of new-onset seizures following immunization against COVID-19: a self-controlled case-series study.Epidemiology and health · 2025Article
- Article
- Effect of COVID 19 pandemic on the neurology department hospitalization with analysis of the neurological complications secondary to COVID 19 and vaccination against COVID 19.SAGE open medicine · 2024Article
- Vaccination against COVID-19 and potential protective effects on seizure recurrence in children with epilepsy: A cross-sectional survey.Epilepsia open · 2023Article
- SARS-CoV-2 vaccination in paediatric patients with epilepsy: experience of a tertiary center in Colombia.Revista de neurologia · 2023Article
- Effects of COVID-19 Infection and Vaccines on Patients with Epilepsy: Real-Life Experiences.Noro psikiyatri arsivi · 2023Article
- The effect of COVID-19 vaccination on epileptic seizures in patients with epilepsy: A clinical observation in China.Human vaccines & immunotherapeutics · 2022Observational
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13 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
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No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesTo investigate the safety and tolerability of COVID-19 vaccines in people with epilepsy (PwE).
methodsIn this multicentric observational cohort study, we recruited adult patients (age > 18 years old) with epilepsy who attended the Outpatient Epilepsy Clinic from 1st July to 30th October 2021. We administered to the patients a structured questionnaire and interview on demographic and epilepsy characteristics, current treatment, previous SARS-CoV-2 infection, vaccine characteristics, post-vaccine seizure relapse, other side effect, variation of sleep habits, caffeine, or alcohol intake. Seizure frequency worsening was defined as a ratio between mean monthly frequency post-vaccination and mean monthly frequency pre-vaccination superior to 1. Patients were categorized in two groups: patients with seizure frequency worsening (WORSE) and patients with seizure stability (STABLE).
resultsA total of 358 people participated with a mean age of 47.46 ± 19.04. Focal seizure (79.1%), generalized epilepsy (20.4%), and unknown types of epilepsy (0.5%) were detected among participants. In total, 31 (8.7%) people expressed that they were not willing to receive a COVID-19 vaccine; 302 patients (92.35%) did not experience an increase in the seizure frequency (STABLE-group) whereas 25 patients (7.65%) had a seizure worsening (WORSE-group). Post-vaccine seizures occurred mainly in the 7 days following the administration of the vaccine. Patients in the WORSE-group were treated with a mean higher number of anti-seizure medication (ASMs) (p = 0.003) and had a higher pre-vaccine seizure frequency (p = 0.009) compared with patients in the STABLE-group. Drug-resistant epilepsy was also associated with seizure worsening (p = 0.01). One-year pre-vaccination seizure frequency pattern demonstrated that patients in the WORSE-group had a higher frequency pattern (p < 0.001). Multivariate analysis of the vaccinated group showed that only the seizure frequency pattern (confidence interval [CI] = 1.257-2.028; p < 0.001) was significantly associated with seizure worsening.
conclusionIn our cohort of vaccinated PwE, only a little percentage had a transient short-term increase of seizure frequency. The present study demonstrates that COVID-19 vaccines have a good safety and tolerability profile in the short term in PwE.
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