Metabolic Syndrome Is Common In People With Epilepsy

What was studied

This paper combined results from earlier studies to estimate how common metabolic syndrome is in people with epilepsy around the world. It was a systematic review and meta-analysis, meaning the authors searched several medical databases and pooled data from studies that reported metabolic syndrome prevalence in people with epilepsy.

The review included 24 findings from 18 studies. The included studies were cross-sectional, cohort, or case-control studies published in English through 2025. The abstract does not give details such as ages, seizure types, medicines used, or how many total patients were included across all studies.

What they found

Across the included studies, the estimated overall prevalence of metabolic syndrome in people with epilepsy was 29.6%. The 95% confidence interval was 25.7% to 33.9%.

Studies from South America showed the highest pooled prevalence, at 42.4% (95% CI: 37.8% to 47.0%). The one study that used the "Harmonized Criteria" to define metabolic syndrome reported a prevalence of 49.4% (95% CI: 39.2% to 59.7%).

The meta-regression analysis did not find a significant association between prevalence and the study publication year or the number of participants.

Limits of the evidence

This study pooled results from different studies, so it can estimate how common metabolic syndrome may be, but it cannot show why it occurs in people with epilepsy.

The abstract does not explain important details that could affect the results, such as patient age, sex, epilepsy type, or antiseizure medicines. Different studies may also have used different definitions of metabolic syndrome, which can change prevalence estimates. Only English-language studies were included, and one subgroup result was based on just a single study.

For families and caregivers

For families, this review suggests that metabolic syndrome may be fairly common in people with epilepsy, so overall health matters along with seizure care.

This does not mean every person with epilepsy will have metabolic syndrome. But the abstract suggests healthcare professionals should regularly monitor risk factors associated with metabolic syndrome and try to identify them early in people with epilepsy.

What to watch next

Future studies could help by using consistent definitions of metabolic syndrome and reporting results by factors such as age, sex, epilepsy type, and antiseizure medicine use.

Terms in this summary

metabolic syndrome

A group of health risk factors that occur together.

systematic review

A study that carefully collects and summarizes all relevant research on a question.

meta-analysis

A method that combines results from multiple studies to produce one overall estimate.

prevalence

How common something is in a group at a certain time.

95% confidence interval

A range that shows where the true result is likely to fall, based on the data.

heterogeneity

How different the study results are from each other.