Increasing Risk of Dementia Among Patients with Subsequent Epilepsy Within 2 Years Post-Traumatic Brain Injury: A Population-Based Case-Control Study.

BACKGROUND: Although the association between neurodegenerative diseases, such as dementia, and traumatic brain injury (TBI) has long been known, the association between dementia and TBI with epilepsy has been controversial.

AIM: This data-driven population-based study is designed to investigate the association between dementia and epilepsy after TBI within a 2-year period.

METHODS: This case-control cohort study was conducted using the Longitudinal Health Insurance Database 2000 (LHID2000). We included 784 individuals ambulatory or hospitalized for TBI with epilepsy from 2001 to 2011, compared with 2992 patients with TBI without epilepsy who were matched for characteristics including sex, age, and healthcare resource use index date. Every participant was followed up for 5 years to ascertain any dementia development. Data were stratified and analyzed using the Cox proportional hazards regression.

RESULTS: Through the 5-year follow-up period, 39 patients (5.21%) with TBI with epilepsy and 55 (1.53%) with TBI without epilepsy developed dementia. TBI with epilepsy was independently associated with a >3.03 times risk of dementia after correcting for age, sex, and comorbidities.

CONCLUSION: These findings suggest an increased risk of dementia in patients with TBI with epilepsy. Our research recommends that individuals with TBI and epilepsy be monitored more intensively.