Epilepsy In AUTISM: LONG TERM FOLLOW up

Background:  Studies about epilepsy in patients with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) had found different  rates of prevalence depending on the origin of the population. There are few data on the longitudinal evolution of these patients.

Objectives:  To present the characteristics of epileptic syndromes and their evolution in a group of patients with ASD in a child neurology office.

Methods:  We evaluated retrospectively the medical records of a group of 400 patients with ASD, with more than one year neurological of follow up. Of the 400 patients, 346 were males, 54 females with a male / female ratio of 6 / 1 and a range of age between 4 to 46 years of age. Of these 400 patients,  51 of them developed epilepsy and 3 developed febrile seizures 3 patients. Sex ratio was 3 / 1. We divided the group with epilepsy into two subgroups with: one with primary TEA, with no other signs of encephalopathy associated, and the other with encephalopathies associated. We analyzed the type of epileptic syndromes and response to treatment in both groups.

Results:  

We found a frequency of epilepsy in people with ASD of 13% at the whole group. Within the group with epilepsy, 45% of them belonged to the group with primary TEA, and 55% to the group with ASD secondary to underlying chronic encephalopathies, including the subgroup of girls with Rett syndrome.

The outcome of patients with primary ASD was significantly shorter, with fewer crises, and usually required less medication to control them. The group with neurological diseases presented longer epilepsies with less response to treatment.

Conclusions:  

We found out that epilepsy in children with ASD have the same evolution and treatment than children without autism. The prognosis depends on the epileptic syndrome nor with the presence of ASD.