Epilepsy and other comorbidities in Down syndrome

Abstract

Down syndrome (DS) is the most common cause of intellectual disability. Due to many genetic and biochemical aberrations, people with DS suffer from several somatic disorders and concomitant diseases. Epilepsies occur more often than in the normal population, but less often than with intellectual disability of other causes. Epilepsies in DS have a trimodal distribution with age-related phenotypes, etiologies, and prognosis. The most common epilepsy syndrome in infancy is the often-self-limiting West syndrome; if Lennox–Gastaut syndrome occurs in the later course of development, the seizure prognosis worsens significantly. From the fourth decade of life, myoclonic epilepsy often occurs, which in combination with rapidly progressive Alzheimer’s dementia is life-limiting within a few years.