Epilepsy Research News

December 2025

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Higher Epilepsy Mortality Rates Associated with Previous TBI in US Veterans

In a recent study, researchers discovered evidence that a traumatic brain injury (TBI) at least 5 years before a diagnosis of epilepsy was associated with a higher rate of mortality in U.S. military veterans.

“Post-traumatic epilepsy (PTE) is presumed to have worse outcomes than other forms of epilepsy, although it has never been definitively shown that mortality is higher,” Zulfi Haneef, MD, MBBS, FRCP, professor of neurology at Baylor College of Medicine said.

The researchers sought to clarify mortality rates for PTE and non-traumatic epilepsy (NTE) and their associations with various forms of TBI through a retrospective cohort study of U.S. military veterans. NTE was defined as the lack of TBI before epilepsy diagnosis date, while TBIs were split into five categories: skull/facial fracture, diffuse cerebral, focal cerebral, extracerebral or concussion, based on ICD codes.

The researchers collected and analyzed data from the Veterans Health Administration (VA), which identified 210,182 individuals diagnosed with epilepsy between 2005 to 2022. All patients also had documented PTE within 5 years of their epilepsy diagnosis date. Mortality rate in PTE was higher compared with NTE and varied between different TBI classifications. The highest was for those with skull/facial fracture followed by diffuse cerebral injury, then focal cerebral injury. However, those in the NTE group with underlying concussion logged a mortality rate lower than all NTE combined.

New Epilepsy Tech Could Cut Misdiagnoses by Nearly 70% Using Routine EEGs

Using a new tool that turns routine electroencephalogram (EEG) tests that appear normal into highly accurate epilepsy predictors, researchers may have uncovered a way for doctors to reduce epilepsy misdiagnosis.

To improve the ability of EEGs to diagnose patients suspected of having epilepsy, researchers studied what happens in the brains of patients when they are not experiencing seizures. Their tool, called EpiScalp, uses algorithms trained on dynamic network models to map brainwave patterns and identify hidden signs of epilepsy from a single routine EEG.

The new study analyzed 119 epilepsy patients from five major medical centers and 99 patients without epilepsy. When researchers reanalyzed the initial EEGs using EpiScalp, the tool correctly identified about 84% of true epilepsy cases and correctly ruled out 96% of non-epilepsy cases.

Seizure Recurrence after GLP-1 Receptor Agonist Initiation in Adults with Epilepsy

In a recent study, researchers investigated whether starting a glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist (GLP-1 RA), like Ozempic or Wegovy, is associated with lower seizure recurrence and related outcomes in adults with both epilepsy and type 2 diabetes.

The study utilized de-identified electronic health records from adults 18 years or older with recurrent seizures. New users of GLP-1 RAs were compared with new users of other glucose-lowering drugs. The study found that GLP-1 RA initiation was associated with an 18% lower risk of recurrent seizures, as well as substantially lower inpatient hospitalization rates and mortality. GLP-1 RA therapy was also associated with improved clinical outcomes compared with other glucose-lowering agents.

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