Influence of weather regime and local geomagnetic activity on the occurrence of epileptic seizures

Abstract

Epilepsy is a common neurologic disease and presents a major public health problem. Patients with epilepsy have unexpected occurrence of seizures with many triggered by existing triggering factors such as alcohol, stress etc. Other potential triggers include certain weather or atmospheric parameters and local geomagnetic activity. We have analyzed the impact of atmospheric parameters grouped in 6 grouped weather types or weather regimes and the local geomagnetic activity through the K - index. In the prospective study, we analyzed a total of 431 seizures over a 17-month period. In the results obtained, we found that the most severely common weather regime grouped type of weather was radiation and then precipitation regime. It was also found that grouped weather types of weather regimes had more impact on generalized than focal epileptic seizures. Local geomagnetic activity had no direct effect on the occurrence of epileptic seizures. Those results confirm the thesis how the impact of certain external factors is complex and that the further study is required in that respect.

Keywords: Epileptic seizure; Local geomagnetic activity; Trigger factors; Weather regime.