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Stress facilitates seizures in patients with epilepsy. The frequency with which this occurs is uncertain. Estimates range widely, from 14 to 67% of patients affected,1–5 mainly because there is no uniform definition of stress. One way of bypassing the problem of the definition of stress is to examine the effects on seizures of an event that is generally recognized as stressful. The 9/11/2001 terrorist attack was such an event in the United States. In the current study, we examined the effect of 9/11 attack-related emotional stress on seizures among patients with epilepsy in an area directly involved in one of the attacks, Washington, DC, by comparing seizure frequency before and after the attack. In addition, because we had studied the association of subjectively perceived stress with seizures in the same patients before 9/11, we compared the change in seizure frequency following 9/11 with patients' own assessment of stress as a seizure precipitant.
Methods.
Cognitively normal adult patients with epilepsy seen consecutively in the Georgetown University Hospital (GUH) Epilepsy Clinic between 9/12 and 12/20/01 were evaluated. GUH is 3 miles from the Pentagon, the Washington target of the 9/11/2001 attack. Greater Washington area residents present …
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