Are COVID-19 vaccines safe for people with epilepsy?
Mehrshad Hanafimosalman
March 15, 2022
The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the world and our daily lives since it began back in March 2020. Thanks to today’s recent scientific advancements, several effective vaccines have been successfully developed to protect people around the world against this new disease. Two years through the pandemic, addressing the safety of such vaccines for epilepsy patients remains of high importance. Many patients are still uncomfortable receiving the coronavirus vaccine since there is limited data about its effect on seizures in people with epilepsy (PWE). A recent study published on 27 February 2022 assessed the adverse events of COVID-19 vaccine in PWE.
In this cross-sectional study conducted in Ege University Hospital in Turkey, 178 epilepsy patients who had received two or three doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech or the CoronaVac (Chinese) vaccine at least 1 month earlier were asked questions about their demographic features, clinical features, and epilepsy-related adverse events of their vaccination. After comparing the results, there was no significant difference in the average number of monthly seizures before the vaccination, the month between the doses, or the month after vaccination. However, it is important to note that the patients were all older than 18 years old.
This study concluded that the current COVID-19 vaccines are tolerated well by the epilepsy patients, since the vaccines did not affect the monthly number of seizures of the PWE. Although a small number of patients had more seizures than normal after vaccination, the benefits of the vaccines outweigh the slightly increased possibility of having a seizure after vaccination.
There are several other studies that came to the same conclusion as this recent Turkish study. For example, a German study with 54 epilepsy patients found that most of them experienced no side effects after receiving the vaccine. About one-third had common vaccine side effects (headaches, tiredness and fever). No patients experienced status epilepticus (seizure that lasts longer than 5 minutes; or having more than 1 seizure within 5 minutes without return to a normal level of consciousness). Another study of 111 PWE in Kuwait found that COVID-19 vaccinations caused the same common side effects as the last study (sore arm, headache or fevers). 94% of the participants said their seizures did not worsen after vaccination, but one epilepsy patient reported developing status epilepticus in the days after their vaccination.
Finally, The International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE) says that the risks from getting COVID-19 are much higher than any risks that might come from having the vaccine. If you have any specific concerns, we recommended that you speak with your epilepsy specialist.
Learn more: Are COVID-19 vaccines safe for people with epilepsy? A cross-sectional study (springer.com) (pdf link - preferred)
Or Are COVID-19 vaccines safe for people with epilepsy? A cross-sectional study | SpringerLink (website link)
Other sources
German study: COVID-19 vaccination in patients with epilepsy: First experiences in a German tertiary epilepsy center (nih.gov)
ILAE: COVID-19 Vaccines and People with Epilepsy // International League Against Epilepsy (ilae.org)