Authors :
Presenting Author: ELIZABETH CASSIDY, MPH – TSC Alliance
Robert Moss, N/A – SeizureTracker LLC; Zoe Fuchs, N/A – TSC Alliance; Steven Roberds, PhD – Chief of Science, TSC Alliance
Rationale:
While an association of epilepsy and neuropsychiatric disorders is known, the relationship between seizure duration and specific TSC-associated neuropsychiatric disorders (TAND) is not heavily researched. For example, a meta-analysis study of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and epilepsy found the co-occurrence of both disorders was about 1 in 10 individuals [1]. Another study found a relationship suggesting the impairment of the limbic system due to underlying anxiety may cause epileptic seizures [2]. Neither study looked specifically at TSC. This study investigated whether seizure duration correlated with specific TAND-related diagnoses.Methods:
Participants were identified in the TSC Natural History Database (NHD) who consented to data sharing with the SeizureTracker™ application. Thirty participants were identified, but seven were excluded from analysis due to having no data in SeizureTracker.
Statistical analyses used SPSS (v. 29). Descriptive analyses examined cohort demographics. The dependent variable was average seizure duration from participants’ SeizureTracker time entries. Chi-square analyses assessed the relationship between specific demographic variables. Independent variables were TAND symptoms divided into two groups of having a diagnosis or not. An independent t-test was utilized to assess the relationship between TAND groups to average seizure duration.
Results:
Mean age of the 23 included participants was 12.9 years of age, and 69.8% were female (Table 1). Genetic variants included TSC1 (17.4%), TSC2 (43.5%), and PKD1 (4.4%), with 34.8% lacking genetic data (Table 1).
TAND symptoms assessed were ASD, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and anxiety. 42.1% of participants in the cohort had a diagnosis of ASD (p< 0.001), 21.1% had ADHD (p< 0.001), and 10.5% had anxiety (p< 0.01). Average seizure duration of all participants was 7.23 minutes. Average seizure duration was 1.39 minutes in participants with ADHD, 2.23 minutes in participants with ASD, and 2.18 minutes in participants with anxiety. While participants with ASD had a longer average seizure duration, there was no significant relationship between ASD and seizure duration (p=0.28). A one-way ANOVA assessed differences between each group, which found no statistically significant difference in seizure duration among ASD, ADHD, and anxiety (p=0.09).