Continuous use of anti-epileptic drugs increases your risk of dementia by 30%

People who continuously use anti-epileptic drugs are more likely to have Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, according to a study published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

In the study, researchers at the University of Eastern Finland and the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) looked at the effects of the continuous use of anti-epileptic drugs on the risk of dementia of any type and Alzheimer’s disease using two datasets.

The Finnish dataset was part of the nationwide register-based MEDALZ study, which includes the 70,718 individuals diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in Finland in 2005 to 2011 and their 282,862 controls. On the other hand, the German researchers studied the link between anti-epileptic drug use and dementia in the data of 20,325 people diagnosed with dementia in 2004-2011, and their 81,300 controls. The sample came from a large German statutory health insurance provider.