Patients with Gout at increased risk of epilepsy, finds study

Written By : Dr.Niharika Harsha B |Medically Reviewed By : Dr. Kamal Kant Kohli Published On 2020-08-21T10:45:21+05:30 | Updated On 24 Aug 2020 7:56 AM IST

A recent study found that there is a significantly increased risk of epilepsy in patients who have Gout. The study was published in the journal, "Medicine" 2020.

Gout is a chronic inflammatory disease related to uric acid metabolism and causing increased burden worldwide. The disease process involves the accumulation of uric acid crystals in the joints triggering inflammation. This in turn leads to joint pains and the release of cytokines in the body. Recent studies have shown that gout can be associated with certain neurologic disorders associated with inflammation like epilepsy. Epilepsy is one of the most common neurologic disorders which can be triggered by inflammation. Chen and Hung Lin et al from Taiwan conducted a study to investigate the association of epilepsy with gout and determine the risk of epilepsy in patients with gout.

The authors analysed a national database that included all patients with gout in Taiwan. They obtained the gout cohort from the Registry of Catastrophic Illnesses Patient Database (RCIPD). 104,238 patients who were aged 20 years or more and newly diagnosed with gout between 2000 and 2011 were identified. Patients with 3 outpatient visits or history of gout-specific hospitalization between 2000 and 2011 were considered. Patients without gout were frequency matched with the gout cohort at a 2:1 ratio according to age, sex, comorbidities, and year of gout diagnosis. Patients with a pre-diagnosis of epilepsy before the index date or an incomplete medical history or follow-up within 6 months were excluded from the study.

The key findings of the study were:

• The gout cohort showed a 1.27-fold higher overall crude hazard ratio (HR) for epilepsy compared with the control cohort.

• After adjusting the analyses by age, sex, and comorbidities the gout patients displayed an increased risk of epilepsy compared with the control group.

• There was a statistically significant increased risk of epilepsy in patients with gout compared with patients without gout.

Thus, the researchers concluded that there is a significantly higher risk of epilepsy in patients with gout. They also added that this study provides further evidence for the debate around the effect of gout on brain health.

For further reading, click the following link:

goutepilepsyuric acid metabolisminflammationneurological disorder

Source : Medicine

Dr.Niharika Harsha B

BDS, MDS

Dr.Niharika Harsha B (BDS,MDS) completed her BDS from Govt Dental College, Hyderabad and MDS from Dr.NTR University of health sciences(Now Kaloji Rao University). She has 4 years of private dental practice and worked for 2 years as Consultant Oral Radiologist at a Dental Imaging Centre in Hyderabad. She worked as Research Assistant and scientific writer in the development of Oral Anti cancer screening device with her seniors. She has a deep intriguing wish in writing highly engaging, captivating and informative medical content for a wider audience. She can be contacted at editorial@medicaldialogues.in.

Dr. Kamal Kant Kohli

Dr Kamal Kant Kohli-MBBS, DTCD- a chest specialist with more than 30 years of practice and a flair for writing clinical articles, Dr Kamal Kant Kohli joined Medical Dialogues as a Chief Editor of Medical News. Besides writing articles, as an editor, he proofreads and verifies all the medical content published on Medical Dialogues including those coming from journals, studies,medical conferences,guidelines etc. Email: drkohli@medicaldialogues.in. Contact no. 011-43720751