Epilepsy & behavior : E&B
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In March 2020, the World Health Organization declared the SARS-CoV-2 infection-related coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) a pandemic. During the first and second waves of the pandemic spread, there have been several reports of COVID-19-associated neurological manifestations, including acute seizures and status epilepticus (SE). In this systematic review, we summarized the available data on clinical features, diagnosis, and therapy of COVID-19-related SE. ⋯ SE can be a neurological manifestation of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Although a possible association between SE and COVID-19 has been reported, the exact mechanisms are still not fully understood. Systemic inflammatory syndrome due to cytokine release could play a role in COVID-19-related SE.
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Epilepsy & behavior : E&B · May 2021
Telemedicine during the SARS-Cov-2 pandemic lockdown: Monitoring stress and quality of sleep in patients with epilepsy.
SARS-CoV-2 pandemic heavily hit the western healthcare system saturating the hospital beds in wards and clogging the emergency departments. To avoid the collapse of Italian hospitals, office visits to outpatients were limited to emergencies and the general population went in a lockdown state. Physicians had to approach new problems in the management of chronic patients who could not leave their homes. ⋯ In particular, we found that in our patients, sleep quality was low resulting in high daily sleepiness and associated high stress levels. Secondly, we found an increase in daily screen hours and an association with daily sleepiness. In conclusion, we report our experience in managing people with epilepsy during the lockdown, underlining the utility of telemedicine as a valid monitoring tool and the necessity of a psychometric and behavioral screening.