The potential for smartwatches to recognise stress signals and alert people living with epilepsy to periods of high seizure risk will be investigated in a new study.
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Chronic stress is known to increase seizure frequency in some people with epilepsy, honorary professor of neurology at Mater Research and Queensland Brain Institute Aileen McGonigal says.
"Epilepsy is characterised by the tendency to have recurrent seizures, caused by intermittent disturbances of brain rhythms that can provoke falls, lack of awareness, even convulsions," Dr McGonigal said.
"By tracking these brain rhythms, combined with the heart rate variability and electro-dermal activity picked up by smartwatches, we hope to capture signatures to individual personalised stress responses and possibly even personalised seizure information."
The stress signatures could be used to refine wearable devices so they could alert a patient to periods of high risk, she said.
Epilepsy is one of the most common neurological disorders in Australia, affecting 150,000 people.
The unpredictability of seizures can cause anxiety, and a wearable detection device would offer a degree of control, Epilepsy Queensland CEO Chris Dougherty said.
"The greater self-management people have over their epilepsy, the more empowered they are to live their life, and this study has the ability to give them that," he said.
The new study by Mater Research and the University of Queensland brings together specialists in stress, as well as a team of neurologists and engineers, specialised in the detection of the electro-physiological signature of seizures.
It has been awarded a $40,000 grant in the Bionics Queensland Challenge for its potential to change lives impacted by epilepsy.
"Professor McGonigal and her team at the Mater Hospital Brisbane delivered a standout project that will change the lives of people living with epilepsy," Bionics Queensland CEO Robyn Stokes said.
Australian Associated Press
