The Relationship Between Sleep Disorders, Pediatric Epilepsy, and AntiSeizure Medications: Sanjeev Kothare, MD

WATCH TIME: 3 minutes

“I think people are slowly becoming aware that there can be comorbid sleep problems in patients with epilepsy and so they're trying to address them. My job is to educate neurologists on how to screen for sleep disorders and document them in electronic medical records.”

Based on observed interactions in the literature, sleep and epilepsy seem to be connected to one another. Antiseizure medications also appear to have an impact on sleep when used to treat those with epilepsy, in the sense that the treatment might improve the patient’s sleep—or have the opposite effect. Therefore, these observations between sleep and epilepsy should be considered by clinicians when deciding on treatment for patients who may have comorbid sleep disorders.

Sanjeev Kothare, MD, gave a talk about sleep and epilepsy in children in a special lecture at the 2022 American Epilepsy Society Annual Meeting, held December 2 to 6, in Nashville, Tennessee.¹ He mentioned the impact that antiseizure medications can have on a patient’s sleep health if they also have pediatric epilepsy, and how clinicians are trying to address the issue in the lecture.

Kothare, who is the division director of pediatric neurology, and director of the pediatric sleep program at Cohen Children's Medical Center of Northwell Health, was interviewed by NeurologyLive^® at the 2022 AES annual meeting to provide an overview about the relationship on epilepsy and sleep disorders in children. He also discussed how common sleep disorders are in patients with epilepsy and what the most important aspect of care is for these patients.

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REFERENCES
1. Kothare S. Sleep and Epilepsy in Children. Presented at: AES Annual Meeting; December 2-6, 2022; Nashville, TN, and virtual. Special Lecture.