Prevalence of Epilepsy and Young-Onset Dementia in Adults with Intellectual Disability: Contrasting Down Syndrome and Autism Diagnoses

This large-scale cross-sectional study analyzed Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services data from over 847,000 adults with intellectual disability (ages 30-64) and compared them to over 1 million general population controls to examine prevalence of epilepsy and young-onset Alzheimer's disease and related dementias. Results showed significantly higher prevalence of both conditions and their comorbidity in the ID population, with autism spectrum disorder associated with greatest epilepsy risk and Down syndrome with greatest dementia risk.