IEC 2025 | Including older adults in epilepsy research and addressing psychiatric comorbidities

People who are older have been a very missed group of patients with epilepsy in terms of research. We know that in terms of the clinical trials which I’ve mentioned already but also in the epidemiology and it’s really good to see a growing movement to change that. We should have research looking at both aspects looking at incidence and also the best management and there is absolutely no reason not to include older people in clinical trials. So as epilepsy clinicians coming from all backgrounds we can really advocate to include older people in clinical research and we have a really powerful ability to influence that so that’s one really important area that we can make a difference. It’s also important that there are resources given to improve the psychiatric comorbidity in terms of all types of management that means that there’s a need to look at both pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatments to think of things like exercise involvement interaction with other people all of those holistic measures that will make a difference at any age and particularly for older people who may no longer be in employment and who have lost that structure of having a job and having those social interactions thinking about those thinking about exercise and thinking about diet all of those things are incredibly important. And as in all areas of epilepsy it’s important to think also of the social aspect that if you are older and you have epilepsy and you have depression and anxiety that will be compounded enormously if you don’t have an adequate place to live if you don’t have adequate resources for good food and for doing things that bring you joy. So it’s very much a holistic approach that’s needed and I think this is something that is very exciting in the International League Against Epilepsy that there is a real emphasis on working together in bringing people from all the different aspects and together with the patients their voices are central to all of this and we need to be listening to their needs and looking across different environments cultures and places in the world where the needs will be different so there is a lot that can be done and there’s a lot that is starting to be done much more work that is needed in this area so that we know exactly what the comorbidities are we know how this relates to the epilepsy to cognitive changes and then how we can intervene to improve these factors reduce their impact in daily life.

This transcript is AI-generated. While we strive for accuracy, please verify this copy with the video.