Periodic limb actions (PLMs) happen steadily amongst individuals with epilepsy (PWE) however don’t happen extra usually than amongst these with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), in response to a examine printed in Epilepsy Analysis.
Manav Jain, from Queen’s College in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, and colleagues examined the prevalence and particular options of PLMs in PWE and explored how these actions correlate with goal sleep measurements in a retrospective chart overview of consecutive adults recognized with epilepsy who underwent polysomnography over a 10-year span.
A complete of 152 related sufferers had been recognized; of those, 61 with epilepsy met the inclusion standards and had been matched to 61 sufferers suspected for OSA. The researchers discovered that 43 sufferers within the epilepsy cohort skilled focal-onset epilepsy and 16 had generalized epilepsy.
General, 25 and 12 sufferers had been prescribed two or extra antiseizure drugs and had been labeled as medically refractory, respectively. PLMs had been detected in 23% and 26% of sufferers with epilepsy and controls, respectively, with imply PLM index values of 6.1 ± 16.8 and eight.8 ± 20.7, respectively.
The PLM arousal index was related between the teams, and different sleep parameters didn’t exhibit vital variations between the teams. The one issue linked to PLM within the epilepsy cohort was older age, with no associations seen for seizure sort, variety of antiseizure drugs, or seizure management.
“The results emphasize the need to consider overlapping sleep disorders in the evaluation of sleep disturbances among epilepsy patients,” the authors write.
Extra info:
Manav Jain et al, Periodic limb actions amongst individuals with epilepsy: A retrospective polysomnographic examine, Epilepsy Analysis (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.eplepsyres.2025.107662
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Quotation:
Research: Periodic limb actions happen steadily in individuals with epilepsy (2025, September 22)
retrieved 23 September 2025
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