Apr 14, 2014 02:53 PM EDT By Jaleesa Baulkman, UniversityHerald Reporter

Children and young adults with epilepsy have an increased risk of overdosing on medication compared to those without the neurological disorder, according to a recent study.

Epilepsy is a chronic condition caused by a sudden burst of electrical activity in the brain, causing a temporary interruption in the way the brain normally works and resulting in a seizure.

Researchers from the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom found that people between the ages of 12 months and 24 years old with epilepsy were twice as likely to be poisoned by medication. This jumped to four times the risk in patients aged between 19 and 24 years old, leading the authors to call for further research into whether these poisonings are intentional.

"More research is needed to understand why people with epilepsy have a greater number of medicine-related poisonings and whether the poisonings are intentional or accidental," Dr. Vibhore Prasad, researcher from the University of Nottingham's Division of Primary Care, said in a statement. "The risk of a poisoning in the next five years for 1,000 people with epilepsy is about 20 extra poisonings compared to people who do not have epilepsy."

For the study, researchers collected data from nearly 12,000 patients with epilepsy to study the incidence of injury over an average of two and a half years and compared it with the records of around 47,000 non-epileptic people.

In addition to having a greater risk of suffering from an overdose, investigators also found that young people with epilepsy were almost one and half times more likely to suffer a burn-related injury and almost 25 percent more at risk of breaking an arm or leg.

Previous studies into the condition have suggested that these seizures -- and the side effects caused by some anti-epilepsy drugs -- put patients at a greater risk of accidental injuries.

However, most research may have overestimated this risk because they focused primarily on people with more severe epilepsy, such as institutionalized adults or those being treated in epilepsy clinics.

Researchers said their latest study, published in the latest edition of the journal Pediatrics, is the first to investigate the potential risk of injury exclusively in children and young people with and without epilepsy.

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