Seeing the light? Seizures and sunlight

Abstract

We examined 1715 seizures recorded on a dedicated epilepsy inpatient ward over 363 days in 2006-2007. Epileptic seizures, particularly complex partial seizures are less likely to occur on bright sunny days, than dull days. This correlation remains stable when seasonal patterns are controlled for. Non-epileptic attacks do not conform to this pattern. More work is needed to refine the relationship between sunlight and seizure patterns, nevertheless these findings raise the intriguing possibility of palliative light box treatment trials for some patients with medically intractable epilepsy.