People with Focal Epilepsy Often Have Seizures While Driving Before a Diagnosis 

June 8, 2023

Article published by News Medical Life Science

Prior to being diagnosed with epilepsy, 5% of people with a type of epilepsy called focal epilepsy had a seizure while driving, according to a new study published in the June 7, 2023, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. 

Focal epilepsy accounts for more than half of all cases of epilepsy. People with this form of epilepsy have recurring seizures that affect one half of the brain.

For the study, researchers identified 447 people with focal epilepsy. Participants had an average age of 29 when they experienced their first seizure.

Researchers looked at participants’ medical records prior to their epilepsy diagnoses. They found 23 people, or 5% of participants, experienced one or more seizures while driving, for a total of 32 seizures while driving prior to diagnosis.

Of the 23 people, seven people, or 30%, had more than one seizure while driving prior to diagnosis. For six people, or 26%, their seizure while driving was their first-ever seizure.

The consequences of these seizures while driving included 19 motor vehicle accidents and 11 hospitalizations for injuries ranging from a tongue bite and a dislocated thumb to a near drowning.

Researchers found that the average time from experiencing a first seizure to experiencing a seizure while driving was 304 days. The average time between a person’s first seizure while driving to being diagnosed with epilepsy was 64 days.