Impact of COVID-19 vaccination in patients with epilepsy

Abstract

Abstract Background The risk of seizure aggravation following coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines is a major cause behind vaccine hesitancy among patients with epilepsy (PWE), resulting in lower immunization rates. This work aimed to investigate the impact of COVID-19 different vaccines on seizure control in PWE. Results This study was conducted on 110 PWE who received at least the first dose of any COVID-19 vaccine. Sixty-one (55.5%) patients did not develop any side effects from vaccination. There was no statistically significant change in seizure frequency following receiving COVID-19 vaccines, either adenoviral vector vaccines, inactivated vaccines, or mRNA vaccines (P = 0.733, 0.778, respectively). Twelve patients (10.9%) experienced seizure exacerbation following COVID-19 vaccination; seizure occurrence in the first 24 h immediately after the vaccine was reported in only one patient. There were no statistically significant differences between patients who developed seizure exacerbation following COVID-19 vaccination and those who did not develop regarding age, age at onset, seizure etiology, type of vaccine, or seizure exacerbation following COVID-19 infection. Conclusions There is a low likelihood of COVID-19 vaccine-related seizure exacerbations in PWE. This data can be utilized to counsel PWE regarding the safety of COVID-19 vaccination.

Keywords

• People with epilepsy
• COVID-19 vaccines
• Seizure exacerbation
• Vaccine safety