Epilepsy and intellectual disability

Abstract

A Medline and Psychline literature review of epilepsy in people with intellectual disability was performed. The review has highlighted the importance of the impact of epilepsy on the lives of individuals and their families, affecting physical morbidity, leading to an increased mortality and increasing the care-giving burden. Interventions with a strong evidence base are mainly pharmacological with an increasing body of work on the novel antiepileptic drugs. Surprisingly little research exists into the quality of service provision for this population. The authors suggest three areas for future work: (1) an increasing application of research methodologies such as direct observation and qualitative studies into this field; (2) an exploration of the broad impact of treatment and (3) the possibility that epilepsy is a barrier to care provision.