The most common comorbidities among patients with epilepsy

Comorbidity refers to the coexistence of two or more diseases in the same person, which can affect each body system. The chronic course of epilepsy determines to a high percentage the presence of comorbid diseases. Almost every patient with epilepsy has at least one acute or chronic comorbid disease during their lifetime. The aim of the research was to determine the types of the most common comorbidities among patients with epilepsy, as well as their distribution in terms of gender and age. Our research was clinical, epidemiological, and retrospective for a period of ten years. It was based on the data from 1 624 hospitalized patients with epilepsy diagnosis and one or more comorbid diseases. The methods used were documentary analysis, clinical, laboratory, and statistical methods. Neurologic comorbidity (71.2%) was the most common among patients with epilepsy, followed by somatic (58.3%) and psychiatric diseases (15.6%). The most common comorbid disorders were: arterial hypertension (36.4%), trauma of brain (27.6%), disorders of vestibular function (19.8%), headache (10.5%), chronic ischemic heart disease (10.3%), transient cerebral attacks (9.2%), cerebral stroke (7.0%), nephrolithiasis (6%), diabetes mellitus (5.4%), chronic pulmonary disease (4.9%), organic personality disorder (4.7%), depression (3.9%), alcohol abuse (3.8%). The most common coexistent diseases in epilepsy have been studied for the first time in Bulgaria and a number of important conclusions which were reached help the adequate therapeutic approach among patients with epilepsy and comorbid disorders.