• Posted October 30, 2025

Epilepsy From Brain Injury Comes With Increased Risk Of Death, Experts Say

Military veterans who develop epilepsy following a traumatic brain injury might be more likely to die earlier than others with epilepsy.

However, their risk could depend on the cause of their brain injury, researchers reported Oct. 29 in the journal Neurology.

“We recommend that people who develop epilepsy after a traumatic brain injury are closely monitored, and, especially if seizures do not respond well to treatment, are prioritized for surgery or changing to new medications without delay,” senior researcher Dr. Zulfi Haneef said in a news release. He’s a professor of neurology with Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.

For the study, researchers analyzed Veterans Health Administration records on more than 210,000 vets with epilepsy. Of these, nearly 29,000 developed the seizure disorder within five years of suffering a traumatic brain injury.

During a follow-up of around six years, people whose epilepsy related to brain injury were 2% more likely to die than others, the study found.

But the risk varied based on the cause of their brain injury:

• Those with skull fractures had an 18% higher risk of death.

• Those who suffered a severe concussion that caused extensive brain damage had a 17% higher risk.

• Those with concussion that severely harmed a specific part of the brain had a 16% higher risk.

Researchers said severe injuries likely cause high levels of inflammation in the brain, increasing the risk of epilepsy.

However, results also showed that people who suffered average concussions prior to epilepsy had a lower risk of death than those with no traumatic brain injury.

This might be because those with non-trauma-related epilepsy might have developed the disorder due to stroke, infections or cancer, and thus might have higher death rates than people who have simple concussions, researchers said.

“It’s also possible that when people develop epilepsy after a traumatic brain injury, they receive earlier treatment and may have more access to care and better outcomes than people who have not had a traumatic brain injury,” Haneef said.

More research is needed to fully understand the connection between brain injury and epilepsy, researchers said.

More information

The National Institutes of Health has more on epilepsy and seizures.

SOURCE: American Academy of Neurology, news release, Oct. 29, 2025