As was reported, sleep disorders, excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) in particular, are frequently manifested in epilepsy; insufficient attention has been devoted to this issue in clinical practice in Georgia. We investigated the frequency of EDS cases among healthy individuals and epilepsy patients. A questionnaire study has been conducted using the Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS). A group of 251 volunteers (mean age 33.4 years), including 135 subjects without epilepsy and 116 outpatients with this diagnosis (cryptogenic focal/idiopathic generalized epilepsy without cognitive or brain abnormalities), completed the above questionnaire. The EDS phenomenon was found in 8.9% of healthy individuals and in 17.2% of the patients with epilepsy. This problem was more frequent among the epilepsy patients treated by antiepileptic drugs (AEDs). The prevalence of EDS was higher among men suffering from epilepsy as compared to women with this disease. In the untreated group of the newly diagnosed epilepsy patients, there were more men with EDS than women having this problem. The difference in the EDS occurrence between the two groups of outpatients, treated and untreated with AEDs was statistically insignificant. Unlike the individuals without epilepsy, a gender difference in terms of the EDS frequency was revealed among the newly diagnosed patients.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
D. F. Dinges, F. Pack, K. Williams, et al., “Cumulative sleepiness, mood disturbance, and psychomotor vigilance performance decrements during a week of sleep restricted to 4-5 hours per night,” Sleep, 20, 267–277 (1997).
M. Carscadon, W. C. Dement, M. M. Mitler, et al., “Guidelines for the Multiple Sleep Latency Test (MSLT): a standard measure of sleepiness,” Sleep, 9, 519–524 (1986).
L. Maisuradze, N. Lortkipanidze, and N. Oniani, “Sleep-wake schedules and subjective sleep- quality of Georgian university students,” Sleep Med., 12, Suppl. 1, p. 32 (2011).
B. A. Malow, R. J. Bowes, and X. Lin,”Predictors of sleepiness in epilepsy patients,” Sleep, 20, 1105–1110 (1997).
R. Manni, L. Politini, I. Sartori, et al., “Daytime sleepiness in epilepsy patients: evaluation by means of the Epworth sleepiness scale,” J. Neurol., 247, No. 9, 716–717 (2000).
R. Khatami, D. Zutter, A. Siegel, et al., “Sleep-wake habits and disorders in a series of 100 adult epilepsy patients– A prospective study,” Seizure, 15, No. 5, 299–306 (2006).
A. Crespel, M. Baldy-Moulinier, and P. Coubes, “The relationship between sleep and epilepsy in frontal and temporal lobe epilepsies: practical and physiopathologic considerations,” Epilepsia, 39, No. 2, 150–157 (1998).
B. A. Malow, “The interaction between sleep and epilepsy,” Epilepsia, 48, Suppl. 9, 36-38, 2007.
B. A. Malow and B. V. Vaughn, “Sleep disorders and epilepsy,” in: Managing Epilepsy and Co-Existing Disorders, A. B. Ettinger and O. Devinsky (eds.), Butterworth-Heinemann, Boston (2002), pp. 239–254.
J. B. Hoeppner, D. C. Garron, and R. D. Cartwright, “Self-reported sleep disorder symptoms in epilepsy,” Epilepsia, 25, 434-437 (1984).
B. V. Vaughn, M. T. Miller, O. F. D’Cruz, and J. Messenheimer, “Prevalence of sleep complaints in patients with epilepsy: application of the Epworth sleepiness scale,” Sleep Res., 25, 453 (1996).
E. Beghi, “Adverse reactions to antiepileptic drugs: a multimember survey of clinical practice,” Epilepsia, 27, 323–330 (1996).
T. Geladze, M. Virsaladze, O. Toidze, et al., “Some epidemiological aspects of Epilepsy in the East Georgia,” in: Collected Papers of the Sarajishvili Institute of Clinical and Experimental Neurology [in Russian], Megobari, Tbilisi (1995).
G. Lomidze, S. Kasradze, D. Kvernadze, et al., “The prevalence and treatment gap of epilepsy in Tbilisi, Georgia,” Epilepsy Res., 98, 123–129 (2012).
L. Zhizhiashvili, L. Maisuradze, G. Lomidze, and S. Kasradze, “Prevalence of sleepiness among adults with and without epilepsy in Georgia: Preliminary findings,” JSR, 17, Suppl. 1, p. 30 (2008).
G. Kuchukhidze, I. Toidze, I. Khatiashvili, L. Maisuradze, et al., “Prevalence of restless legs syndrome in a Georgian primary healthcare setting: a pilot study,” Eur. Neurol., 68, 177–180 (2012).
“Commission on Classification and terminology of the International League against epilepsy: Proposal for revised classification of epilepsies and epileptic syndromes,” Epilepsia, 30, 389–399 (1989).
“Commission on Classification and terminology of the International League against epilepsy: Proposal for revised and electrical classification of epileptic seizures,” Epilepsia, 22, 489–501 (1981).
M. W. Johns, “A new method for measuring daytime sleepiness: the Epworth Sleepiness Scale,” Sleep, 14, 540-545 (1991).
M. S. Miletin and P. J. Hanly, “Measurement properties of the Epworth Sleepiness Scale,” Sleep Med., 4, 195–199 (2003).
N. Tachibana and M. Taniguchi, “Why do we continue to use Epworth sleepiness scale?,” Sleep. Med., 8, 541–542 (2007).
B. R. Kirkwood and J. A. C. Sterne, Essential Medical Statistics (2nd ed.), Blackwell Science, Oxford (2003).
A. Declerck and A. Wauquier, “Influence of antiepileptic drugs on sleep patterns,” Epilepsy Res. Suppl., 2, 153–163 (1991)
P. Wolf, “Influence of antiepileptic drugs on sleep,” in: Advances in Epileptology, P. Wolf et al (eds.), Raven Press, New York (1987), pp. 733–737.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Maisuradze, L.M., Zhizhiashvili, L.V., Lomidze, G.V. et al. Daytime Sleepiness and Epilepsy: a Pilot Study. Neurophysiology 47, 478–481 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11062-016-9558-x
Received:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11062-016-9558-x