The mechanisms underlying<unk>  are not well understood but probably involve several pathophysiological mechanisms and circumstances. The most commonly involved are seizure-induced hypoventilation and cardiac arrhythmias, but different mechanisms may be involved in different individuals, and more than one mechanism may be involved in any one individual. *Cardiac factors: cardiac arrhythmias and other cardiac events are known to be involved in some cases of<unk> . Such arrhythmias are defined as ictal arrhythmias and include the ictal asystole, which is a rare occurrence mostly in people that have temporal lobe epilepsy. *Respiratory factors: impaired respiration and seizure-induced pulmonary dysfunction as well as central apnea as a result of brain-stem respiratory centers suppression is known to play a role in some cases of<unk> . *Cerebral and autonomic nervous system dysregulation: cardiac arrhythmia and respiratory failure as a result of seizure-related changes to brain function and dysfunction of the autonomic nervous system have been described in cases of<unk> . These include cases of post-ictal generalized EEG suppression described as cerebral shutdown, but its significance remains unclear. *Genetic factors: mutations in several genes have been associated with an increased susceptibility to<unk> . Over 33% of these are related to mutations which lead to increased susceptibility for arrhythmia. Genes involved include the hyperpolarization-activated cyclic nucleotide-gated channels genes (HCN1, HCN2, HCN3 and HCN4). * Anti epileptic drugs: most evidence suggests that antiepileptic drugs are not associated with an increased risk for<unk> , but rather reduce its incidence. Some studies however indicate that some antiepileptic drugs such as lamotrigine and carbamazepine, may increase the risk of<unk>  in females and certain individuals. It is unclear if this is because of the potential cardio-respiratory adverse effects such as lengthening of the QT interval and reduction of heart rate known to be associated with these drugs under certain circumstances, or because a high drug dosage could be a surrogate marker for poor seizure control. * Vagal nerve stimulation: concerns have been raised that vagal nerve stimulation may induce bradycardia or cardiac arrest and may exacerbate sleep apnoea common in people with epilepsy.
Sudden unexpected death in epilepsy
Febrile infection-related epilepsy syndrome
Photosensitive epilepsy
Northern epilepsy syndrome
Musicogenic epilepsy
Hypertensive emergency
Generalized epilepsy
Post-traumatic epilepsy